


A Little Bit Of Magic

by Just_Another_Wolf



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Eventual Smut, F/M, Fire Magic, Magic, Monsters live on the Surface, Paps is adorable, Reader Is Not Frisk, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Teasing, i'll add tags as i go, most characters will make an appearance, puns, reader has magic, reader is female, reader is not necessarily human, they hate each other at first
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2018-12-20 22:20:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 40,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11930460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_Another_Wolf/pseuds/Just_Another_Wolf
Summary: You were the first known offspring of a human and a monster, born in the Underground after your mother fell down. You'd inherited your mother's human appearance and your father's magic, however without being fully monster, you never really could get a full grasp on your powers. So instead you distanced yourself from everyone, to avoid hurting them.A few months after the monsters came back to the surface, you went to Alphys for help with your powers. What you weren't expecting was to meet a rude skeleton who disliked you from the moment you two met, yet who always seemed to be in the same place as you.





	1. In Which He Slams You Against A Wall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone!! So this is my first Reader fic, I've never really written a fanfic like this before, normally I do gay ships from Supernatural xD But anyway, I hope yall enjoy what my weird mind has come up with!

You took a deep breath, looking up at the orange sunrise. Stars were still glimmering where the sky was still blue. You looked behind you at the entrance to the Underground, where most monsters had already exited. You had trailed behind the rest of them, still desperate not to be caught as you walked towards the surface, the place you'd never been. But you turned away from your previous home, towards the new world that lay ahead. This was no time to dwell on the past.

It was incredible. You could actually see the sky, the real sky. No more of the Underground ceiling, no more fake stars in the wishing cave…this was the real deal. A feeling of pure wonder was coursing through you, and you could've sat there watching the sky for hours but…

You took a deep breath, closing your eyes for a moment, your previous wonder being replaced with uncertainty. You were finally here…now what?

~~

Almost half a year later and you were still asking yourself that question. 

Monsters had equal rights now, at least in theory. That didn't stop the various cases of discrimination and prejudice that were happening every day. People still thought monsters were abominations of nature that should never have existed. Honestly, humanity were jerks.

You had a nice little apartment somewhere not far from Mt Ebott, nicer than any of the monsters had gotten because you happened to look human, a fact you weren't entirely proud of. The apartment was mostly empty, your only belongings consisting of clothes, a few books, and a couple of miscellaneous items you had collected.

At the moment, you were watching the news on TV, more crap about another "monster attack," aka, monsters acting in self defence. You gripped the edges of the couch tightly, anger surging through you as you gritted your teeth. It was cruel and unjust, and you couldn't stand to listen to it anymore. You stood and turned off the TV, letting silence fill the apartment.

You ran a hand through your hair and sighed, before noticing the slight burn marks on the couch from where you'd just gripped it. You looked down at your hands and bit your lip with worry.

"I need to find Alphys," you murmured to yourself, rubbing your hands together. You quickly changed into a more presentable outfit than the sweatpants and shirt you'd been wearing, grabbing the monster phone you'd gotten from Alphys years ago and stuffing it in your pocket, before heading out.

You'd been meaning to find Alphys for months, especially when the burning problem you were having started becoming a problem. You'd accidentally burnt the hand of your employer when trying to shake hands with him, and well, that job hadn't worked out for you. Neither had any job actually. It was a work in progress. But…you knew Alphys would understand, that she'd be able to help. It had just been so long, and you were unsure of how she'd react, of how anyone would react. You took a long breath, reassuring yourself that it was time to stop running from your past.

You figured the easiest place to start searching would be in the new monster district. It was where you spent most of your time, as when you were surrounded by monsters you felt natural, at peace. But with humans you couldn't help feeling on edge, as if at any moment one of them would figure out what you were and attack you.

There was a nice little bar that you'd come across in the monster district, one that had a particularly welcoming feel to it. Chances were that the owner saw a lot of people passing through, and would probably know Alphys. You walked into the building with the large 'Grillby's' sign on it, looking around at the drunk monsters hanging out there. Probably too drunk to give you coherent answers. You walked over to the bar where a flame elemental stood, excessively cleaning an already clean glass. He looked up as you approached.

"Hey there," you said, leaning on the counter. "I'm looking for a specific monster, I was wondering if you could help me?" The flame monster narrowed his eyes, and you scowled slightly, taken aback at the immediate distrust. "Hey, I'm a nice human, literally I just want to ask her for help," you said, with an undertone of annoyance. "Her name's Alphys?"

The flame monster inspected you for a moment before nodding in recognition. "I know her, the royal scientist. If you'd like I could give you her address?" His voice was a strange crackling sound, like a fire, but still forming words. It gave you a strange sense of tranquility, that you were quick to shove out of your mind on instinct. 

"Yes please," you replied, and he quickly wrote down an address on a piece of paper that he pulled from under the counter, while you were standing there wondering how he didn't burn the paper. "You're Grillby right?"

Grillby nodded silently, handing you the piece of paper and watching you tensely. "We don't get a lot of humans around here."

"Well, I'd prefer the company of a monster over a human any day," you retorted. "Thank you, I'll see you around." You turned around and walked out of the bar, leaving Grillby to watch you with a puzzled expression, before returning to cleaning the glass.

The address he'd given you wasn't too far from where you were now, just a quick google search and walk away. You headed over immediately, beginning to rehearse what you were going to say. However, each attempt ended without success, your nerves getting the better of you.

"How am I even supposed to bring this up?" you muttered, kicking dejectedly at a rock. "Oh hey Alphys, I'm that kid who ran away from you all those years ago who you probably think is dead." You gave an exasperated sigh. Yeah, it was a bit complicated.

You realized that you had arrived at the house, a small but cute little thing. You could hear voices travelling from inside, in particular two people who sounded like they were yelling. You stood there for a long moment, trying to muster up the courage to walk up to the door. You shook your arms out, bouncing on your feet for a moment before taking the first step towards the house, letting the rest follow easily. At the door, you hesitated for a long moment. Your heart was racing and you were fidgeting with the hem of your shirt. After taking a deep, calming breath, you raised you hand and knocked loudly.

You heard the voices quiet down, and the door opened to show a skeleton standing there. He was about the same height as you, wearing a blue hoodie, basketball shorts and slippers. He seemed to have a constant, but not necessarily friendly smile on his face, with white lights in dark holes for eyes. He was also glaring at you.

"Um, hi," you greeted awkwardly, his gaze boring into you and increasing the feeling of wanting to run and never come back. But you stood your ground. "I uh, I'm looking for Alphys?"

"What do you want with her?" he spoke in a deep voice, his tone untrusting.

"Maybe that's none of your business," you retaliated, glaring back at him with a slight scowl lifting your lip. He narrowed his eyes, somehow, before a familiar fish appeared behind him.

"What's taking ya so long Sans?!" she yelled, before noticing you at the door. Relief washed over you as you recognized the familiar face.

"Hey Undyne," you said quietly. You noticed that she had an eyepatch on, that was odd…she didn't used to have that.

"Do I know you?" she asked and you couldn't help the sharp feeling of sadness that rushed through you.

"You won't remember me, but I really need to talk to you and Alphys," you said softly, your voice barely louder than a whisper. The skeleton, Sans, was still glaring at you.

"Kid, you don't just get to barge in here demanding stuff," he sneered. You turned your gaze to him, the scowl returning in full force.

"Hey, I didn't barge in here and I'm not demanding anything," you growled back. "I've been nothing but polite, so if you could kindly pull that stick out of your ass for one second and let me ask a friend for a favour, that'd be great." Sans blinked, taken aback as Undyne roared with laughter.

"Oh I like you!" she laughed, grabbing your arm and yanking you into the house. You yelped but didn't bother to struggle against her vice-grip. Sans watched you go, before appearing in the living room that Undyne had dragged you into. You looked back at where Sans had been standing and to where he was now, a little confused.

"Hey Alphys!" Undyne yelled. God did she not have a volume button? The small lizard monster who was sitting in the room with another skeleton stood up, and you offered her a shy smile. "This kid wants to talk to you."

"UNDYNE YOU DIDN'T TELL ME YOU HAD A HUMAN FRIEND," the other skeleton exclaimed. He was much taller and skinnier than Sans, and was somehow, if possible, louder than Undyne. "HELLO HUMAN, I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS."

"Nice to meet you, I'm ______," you replied with a smile. His attitude was infectious, and his child like enthusiasm was adorable. You barely noticed Undyne and Alphys look over at you at the mention of your name before Papyrus grabbed you and yanked you into a crushing hug. You yelped and panicked at the sudden movement, trying to escape before your magic played up.

A moment later and Papyrus dropped you, looking at a series of burn marks on his arms. "HUMAN, YOU APPEAR TO HAVE A HIGH TEMPERATURE, ARE YOU UNWELL?" Sans immediately appeared at Papyrus's side, gently taking his arms and looking at the burn marks. He looked up at you, and you were shocked to see the lights gone from his eyes. With a sudden movement of his arm, you were thrown backwards by an unseen force, slamming into the wall behind you. You cried out as your head collided with the wall, searing pain spreading from the point of contact.

"SANS!" Undyne yelled as a bone appeared from nowhere, hovering in front of you. Sans looked at you, one eye lit up blue while the other was a black pit. You were breathing heavily, eyes wide as you tried to push against the force holding you down. But it was pointless, there was no hope of fighting against him.

"S-Sans, let her go," Alphys begged. Sans didn't move for a long moment, the tension so thick in the air you could've cut it with a knife. For a second you thought he wasn't going to listen to Alphys, that he would kill you then and there, but he finally closed his eyes and let you drop to the floor. Relief surged through you, however it was quickly overcome by anger.

"What the hell is your problem?!" you yelled, standing up to snarl at Sans. "An overprotective brother? Or is it just because I'm _human?_ "

"You're not giving me any reason to like you," Sans growled, the pin pricks of light in his eyes still gone from existence.

"Well aren't you two off to a great start," Undyne remarked, stepping between the two of you in an attempt to stop the argument from escalating. "Sans, Papyrus, get out, we need to talk to ______." Sans just glared at Undyne before grabbing Papyrus and teleporting the two of them out of there.

"That went well," you muttered, glancing awkwardly over at Alphys and Undyne who were now openly staring at you. You wanted to shrink under their gaze, to melt away into the floor. 

"You're dead," Undyne stated, crossing her arms in front of her.

"Nice to see you think the same of me as the bonehead did," you mumbled, looking down at the floor.

"No, I mean you should be dead," Undyne reiterated. "Last time I checked, you ran off into the Underground alone."

"Any m-monster would've tried to k-kill you," Alphys stammered.

"Yeah well, I managed to survive," you sighed as you sat down on the couch. "And now…well magic is a bit of an issue."

"That's the only reason you came back?" Undyne accused, scowling slightly. You avoided eye contact, shuffling your feet as the guilt came pouring in.

"No," you said softly. "It was stupid of me to leave you guys in the first place."

"Just be glad your soul would've been no use in opening the barrier," Undyne said. "Or you'd definitely be dead punk."

"W-why are you here n-now?" Alphys asked with the same tone of nervousness that never left her voice.

"Because I need your help," you confessed. "I don't know if you noticed, but I just burned that adorable skeleton. Whatever this magic is, I don't have enough monster in me to control it."

"We'd need to e-evaluate what progress y-you've made since we l-last saw you," Alphys said, her eyes becoming lost in thought. "C-could you come b-by the lab t-tomorrow?"

"Yeah," you said quietly. "Thank you Alphys." 

"O-of course," Alphys stuttered. "I-I mean, y-you were m-my responsibility and I…" She trailed off with an undeniably guilty expression.

"Alphys no…" you whispered. "It was never your fault okay? It was my choice to run away, and it wasn't because of anything you did." A moment of silence followed, where Alphys only looked the slightest bit comforted by your words.

"Well," Undyne interrupted. "Now that that's done, WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON PUNK?!" You laughed at her sudden exclamation, always the same old Undyne.

I guess a little context for you, the reader, is in order. You were born in the Underground to a human mother who fell down, and a monster father. You didn't really know much about the two of them, other than that your mother had died giving birth and your father didn't know how to raise a child, so had given you to the royal scientist and his assistant. A few years later, and you were in the care of Alphys.

Alphys had looked after you for many years, using her scientific knowledge to figure out what exactly it was that you needed to grow up healthily. Undyne knew about you too, and had no violent tendencies towards you, since with a partial monster soul, you wouldn't be able to break the barrier.

But you weren't even a teenager before you ran away from them, because of a certain accident. And now, as an adult, you saw the stupidity in that decision.

"Well," you said to Undyne. "I burnt some guys poor hand and other than that I just spend the rest of my time in an apartment."

"NO MORE OF THAT!" Undyne bellowed. "Ya have to hang with us now, WE CAN HAVE ANIME MARATHONS!" You smiled softly. You'd missed this. But you were cautious, you couldn't let yourself get too close to anyone, especially not physically. You never wanted to hurt anyone again.

"So long as the skeledouche isn't there, I'll be fine," you huffed.

"Papyrus isn't going to shut up about you now, he has to come," Undyne said, before smirking to show her pointed teeth. "But if you mean Sans, then sure, we can kick that guy out."

"Oh no, Papyrus was adorable, I'm keeping him," you smiled.

"You'll have to steal him from Sans first," Undyne cautioned.

"That idiot? How hard could that be?"

Undyne just shook her head. "You have NO idea what you're getting yourself into punk." You just shrugged, not caring too much about the consequences that Sans could cause. A moment of silence followed, where you got increasingly uncomfortable with each second that passed.

"Well uh, I'd best be going now," you mumbled, rubbing your hands together awkwardly.

"WHAT NO YA HAVE TO STAY!" Undyne objected, giving an upset pout. She lowered her voice, and spoke sincerely. "Come on punk, we haven't seen you in ages, we thought you were dead."

"You really s-should stay a bit l-longer, ______," Alphys added.

"Nah, it's better for everyone if I just leave," you said, standing up, rubbing your hands together, this time to snuff out the small purple flames beginning to gather. It was something that had always bothered you, that of all the different possible types of magic, you'd been stuck with fire. It was probably something inherited from your father, maybe he had fire magic too.

"FINE, BUT I'M GETTING YOUR PHONE NUMBER," Undyne hollered, visibly refraining from reaching over to snatch your phone. This brought a small spark of relief, and you passed her your phone, letting her type in her, Alphys, and you assumed Papyrus's numbers. Satisfied, Undyne passed your phone back, smiling widely.

"Right, well," you started, putting your phone back into your pocket. You stood up, backing out of the room awkwardly. "I'll…see you two tomorrow, I guess."

"I'M HOLDING YOU TO THAT!" Undyne yelled as you turned and almost ran out of the house, closing the door behind you. Your heart was racing, and you took three deep breaths before you started walking away from the house, back towards your apartment. It was okay, nothing bad had happened…you hesitantly let yourself feel relieved, smiling softly as you walked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ayy end of the first chapter, what'd you guys think? Like, I'm quite curious and sorta nervous about what people think of my idea xD And any fun recommendations or ideas are welcome :P


	2. In Which Sans Still Doesn't Like You

You were woken the next day by the vibration of your phone, signifying an over enthusiastic text from Undyne. More accurately, almost a hundred texts. Honestly, where did some people get their energy? The texts were mostly random, asking questions about how you'd been doing and updating you on every single thing Undyne and Alphys had done in the last twelve hours. One did have the address of Alphys's lab though, telling you to head over there later. The most recent text…

 

**8:37am, Undyne**

GET YOUR ASS OUT OF BED BEFORE I COME OVER THERE AND DO IT MYSELF

 

You snickered slightly to yourself, before typing out a reply.

 

**8:43am, You**

As if I could sleep through that onslaught

I'll head over to the lab now, try not to blow up my phone with messages? :) 

 

You figured the smiley face would convince her that you were okay and that she didn't need to come and escort you herself. You put your phone down before dragging yourself out of bed, heading into the bathroom. After a nice warm shower you felt pretty refreshed and a little bit more ready to face the day ahead of you. Looking at yourself in the mirror, you put your hand on your chest. Beneath your hand, a purple glow rose up, the same deep purple that you knew the colour of your soul was. You removed your hand, trying to summon up your magic enough to see the outline of the heart, the same way it showed when you were fighting. However you felt the control slip from your grasp, and the purple faded away. You sighed, dejected at the addition to the countless number of failures, before walking out to find presentable clothes to wear.

You settled for the usual, some jeans and a t-shirt, throwing on a casual jacket on top of it all. You rushed a cup of coffee to keep yourself awake, it was one of the better things humanity had created, and headed out in the direction of the monster district.

It was a beautiful day outside…birds were singing, flowers were blooming…but you still wished you had a car, because it didn't matter how nice the day was, this was too much exercise.

You walked into the monster district, immediately relaxing at the familiar sight of monsters around you. They were obviously cautious around you however, seeing as humans still had a bad reputation around the monsters. You ignored the stares you got as you walked through the streets, carefully avoiding making eye contact with any of them.

"HUMAN!"

You jumped at the startlingly loud voice, turning to see a very happy skeleton. You smiled, feeling immediately happier at the presence of a friend. "Hey Papyrus."

"I DID NOT EXPECT TO SEE YOU HERE," he remarked. "ARE YOU VISITING ALPHYS AGAIN?"

"Yeah, I'm heading over to her lab now," you said.

"I'LL COME WITH YOU," Papyrus declared.

"That's not really neces—"

"NONSENSE, I WILL NOT LEAVE A FRIEND TO TRAVEL AND LOOK SO LONELY." You could tell there was going to be no convincing him out of this, as he stood there with such happy determination.

"Wow, did I look that depressed?" you said with a flat expression. 

"OF COURSE NOT," he quickly corrected. "JUST….LONELY."

You just shook your head, smiling slightly as you gave in to Papyrus. The company would be nice anyway, and you would draw less attention if you were with a friend. The two of you continued on in the direction of Alphys's lab, Papyrus talking animatedly about anything and everything.

"OH AND I WOULD LIKE TO APOLOGIZE FOR MY BROTHER," he stated. "HE IS JUST…WELL, HE'S…" Papyrus seemed to struggle to find the right words that weren't an insult to Sans.

You simply scoffed. "He was fine to snap at me like that after you got hurt, but he didn't have to be so rude."

"HE DOESN'T LIKE HUMANS VERY MUCH," Papyrus explained. Your eyes darkened, anger building up in your chest. You were raised in a world of monsters but would always be categorized with humans. There were no words to explain how much you hated it.

"Maybe if he took the time to get to know a human," you muttered darkly.

"HE IS JUST MAD BECAUSE OF THE ONES THAT TRIED TO HURT ME," Papyrus reasoned. "I WAS FINE OF COURSE, BUT HE IS VERY CAUTIOUS NOW." 

"Who the hell tried to hurt you?" you demanded, voice raising. Papyrus was such an innocent monster, anyone who would lay a hand on him had some serious problems. "I'd like to teach them a thing or two."

"NYEHEH, YOU WOULD GET ALONG WELL WITH MY BROTHER," Papyrus laughed, taking the edge off the serious issue.

You just raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah sure, in another world maybe," you grumbled.

The two of you finally reached Alphys lab, and Papyrus bid you a cheerful farewell. He moved towards you like he wanted to hug you, but you flinched the moment he took a step forward. You felt a sharp pang of guilt at his hurt expression that he quickly covered up with enthusiasm before waving goodbye and bounding away. You watched after him sadly before walking into the building.

"Hey Alphys?" you called, noticing that there wasn't anyone in the reception area. There was a distant crash and hurried steps came towards you, Alphys eventually rushing into the room.

"H-hello ______," she stammered. "U-uh, come with m-me."

She rushed off again, glancing behind to make sure you were following. You did so, although you were confused about why she was in such a rush. As you walked through the corridor you passed through many more doors, a few with windows through which you could see monsters working.

"Hey Alphys I fini—" The deep voice cut off and you looked up to see the jerk of a skeleton standing there. He'd traded his blue hoodie for a lab coat, and had one hand in a pocket while the other held a clipboard. He was staring openly at you, clearly surprised at your sudden appearance.

"I-I…uh…" Alphys looked between you and Sans, and you realized she'd been rushing to try to avoid the two of you meeting again.

"What's _she_ doing here?" Sans snarled, the lights vanishing from his eyes. You gulped as he looked at you with the black holes, the constant smile on his face no longer relaxed and friendly.

"S-she's helping m-me with s-something," Alphys said, shuffling nervously on the spot. "W-we can do our w-work later, I-I need to w-work with ______." Sans didn't say anything, just glared at you. You scowled back.

"You heard her, get out of our way skeleton," you spat. Sans just grumbled lowly before turning and walking back into another room.

"U-uh, well, l-let's keep going," Alphys said, continuing to walk through the hall. Eventually you reached a room with messy notes all over the play and various scientific instruments sitting around the room. Alphys ran over to the notes while you stood awkwardly in the middle of the room.

"So, how does this work?" you asked. "Did you ever figure out how the balance of magic and humanity works?"

"W-well," Alphys said. "S-Sans and I have been doing e-experiments with magic and it's e-effects on humans, a-and I have a theory a-about how it works with y-you."

"Alright, what is it?" you asked.

"T-think of it like a spectrum," Alphys explained. "O-of all possible outcomes of a human and m-monster." She shuffled around in her notes until she found a piece of paper, handing it to you. It had a line on it, different points labelled. On one end there was a fully human outcome, and the other end was a fully monster outcome. Beneath it was sort of graph thing, with levels of magic and determination and what the ideal mix of the two was. There was also a whole bunch of other notes about souls fit, but it didn't make much sense to you.

"So I assume the middle of the spectrum is the better section," you muttered. "I'm at the end, aren't I?"

"I-I don't know," Alphys said honestly. "T-that's why we're h-here, I w-want to scan y-your soul." You thought for a moment before sighing and nodding. You trusted Alphys, you always had. 

You went and sat down, putting your hand to your chest. Like earlier, you pulled on your magic, making a purple glow appear in your chest. This time instead of trying to make it go into the mode it did while you were fighting, you pulled sharply on it. The soul pulled out of your chest, now a small heart floating in your hand. It was a swirling mix of purple and white, purple being your human side and white being the monster half.

"I-I didn't know y-you could do that," Alphys puzzled, looking at the soul. She moved over to one of her science machines, typing something into it.

"With how much monsters use their souls, it's something you tend to pick up on," you said, dropping your hand to let the heart hover in front of you. Alphys continued typing some things onto the science machine, pretty much all just stuff you didn't understand. She had used to scan your soul when you were younger, before you started having issues. The machine hadn't looked this advanced though. And your soul had been more purple than white back then.

You moved your soul onto the small scanning pad attached to the strange scientific instrument thing, and watched as lines of light scanned over the small heart. And of course, it had to be at that exact moment that some jerk chose that exact moment to appear in the room. He didn't even knock, he just appeared there.

"So," Sans said, as you hurriedly stood between him and your soul, effectively blocking it from his view. "What are you guys up to?"

"Science," you snapped, trying to keep any panic out of your voice. "Now get out."

"Looks like you're doing something with souls," Sans said, ignoring you and heading over towards Alphys. "I thought this my area of expertise."

"A-actually it's b-both of ours," Alphys said. "S-Sans, y-you should g-go." Sans stopped walking, his eye sockets narrowing.

"Hey I was just making sure the human wasn't killing anyone," he said nonchalantly, his light tone not matching his menacing expression. You scowled at him, anger boiling up inside of you.

"You think I would ever purposely hurt someone?" you growled. "I never would, but you know you're making it real tempting right now."

"Ditto, kid," Sans replied. The two of you glared each other down for another moment, before Sans closed his eyes. "I'm heading home Alphys." And then he was gone.

"Why are you even friends with that jerk?" you huffed, arms folded across your chest.

"H-he's not normally l-like that," Alphys stammered. The machine made a beeping sound and you turned to look at it, taken aback as your saw your soul glowing brightly. As your anger faded, so did the glow, eventually going back to its normal light level.

"Oh," you said simply. You reached out, putting your hand under you soul to guide it back into your chest. It disappeared through your shirt and into your skin, giving off a purple glow before fading out of sight. Alphys was reading over the analysis on the screen, deep in concentration. "So?" you asked, looking at the screen that made no sense.

"Y-your balance of magic and d-determination isn't too f-far out," Alphys said. "It s-shouldn't be dangerous t-to your health…b-but you never l-learned control."

"Oh great," you seethed, throwing your hands up in the air in exasperation. "Like I haven't tried that."

"S-Sans would p-probably be the b-best at helping you…"

"Oh hell no, I'll take my chances with Undyne."

"…"

You paused at Alphys's pause. Oh…that's right. That's what you'd tried back in the Underground. Undyne had tried to help you. It…didn't end well. The memory of seeing Undyne in pain and on the ground came rushing back, the weight of the guilt crushing you. You closed your eyes as tears threatened to spill.

"Maybe I'll just go bury myself in my apartment and never leave again," you muttered more to yourself than to Alphys. Your phone suddenly vibrated, the screen lighting up with a text from Papyrus. "And there goes that idea."

 

**1:32pm, Papyrus**

HUMAN I WISH TO INVITE YOU OVER FOR FRIENDSHIP SPAGHETTI

 

You blinked in surprise at the message. "Friendship spaghetti? I…what?"

Alphys smiled slightly. "H-he gets c-cooking lessons with U-Undyne."

"Oh…" you said, remembering that one time Undyne had tried to teach you how to cook. It had been…interesting. "You know…I've been gone a while…anything happened with you and Undyne yet?" Alphys blushed a deep red and started spluttering, before giving up on speech entirely and nodding, avoiding eye contact with you. You raised an eyebrow at this. "Well about damn time." Alphys just spluttered again before you took mercy on her and waved off the conversation. "Wait, how did Papyrus get my number? Undyne gave me his, but how…"

"U-Undyne probably told h-him today," Alphys said. You just nodded, sending a quick text over to Papyrus asking where he lived, saying you'd be there in a few hours. It couldn't hurt, you just had to be careful. Plus, who could say no to Papyrus? "U-uh, ______, Papyrus and S-Sans live in t-the same house…"

"Well he can piss off," you muttered darkly and Alphys just sighed. "He'll probably just ignore me anyway, it'll be fine." Alphys didn't comment, and you felt a lot less sure about that than you sounded.

You left the lab not long after, heading over in the direction of the skelebros house. You were a little nervous, but you had seen the genuine care in Papyrus's expression earlier, he was a nice guy. And you'd been lonely for so long, to have a friend…you wanted it more than you'd care to admit. So for all that, how bad could dealing with Sans for a few hours possibly be?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want this to have a slow build but at the same time I want them to get along already xD Ah well.
> 
> Hey pst, everyone, have a cookie *gives everyone a cookie*


	3. In Which There Is Friendship Spaghetti

You knocked on the door, really hoping that Papyrus would open it and not Sans. Your hoping all went to waste however. The door opened to show the shorter skeleton standing there, glaring at you the moment he realized it was you.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"Papyrus invited me over," you said sweetly. "Wouldn't want to disappoint your brother now would you?" Sans stood in silence for a moment before sighing and letting you inside.

"SANS IS THAT THE HUMAN?" Papyrus yelled through the house. You wrinkled your nose at the word 'human,' and Sans gave you a weird look.

"Yeah bro," Sans called back. Papyrus came bounding in from the kitchen, smiling brightly.

"HELLO HUMAN, I HAVE ALMOST FINISHED MAKING THE SPAGHETTI, YOU CAN HANG OUT WITH SANS WHILE I FINISH IT." He bounded out of the room again, leaving you standing there awkwardly with Sans.

"Well," you eventually said, before moving to sit on a couch. Sans was watching your every move carefully. "So what do you hate so much about humans?"

"Probably the way they treat us," Sans said. "Or maybe it's how they threw us Underground. Or maybe it's the way that they think they can just come into my house and make friends with my brother an—"

"Jeez okay I get it," you muttered. You weren't even human, but it wasn't like he knew that. You rubbed your hands together nervously, magic sparking between them. Sans walked over to stand in front of you, looking down menacingly at where you were sitting.

"If you ever lay a hand on my brother," he said, his voice low and dangerous. "Well, buddy…" The small lights disappeared from his eyes. "You're gonna have a bad time." You gulped slightly, remembering how Sans had so easily thrown you across the room like a rag doll. He stepped away, moving to sit on the other couch, closing his eyes as he did.

"Wow you're just going to sleep now after throwing that at me?" you scoffed.

"What can I say, I'm bone tired," Sans said without opening his eyes. You blinked, the fact that he'd just made a pun slowly processing in your mind. You snickered, and noticed Sans relax just the tiniest bit.

"HUMAN I HAVE COMPLETED THE SPAGHETTI," Papyrus called from the other room, and you walked in to where Papyrus was now placing plates of spaghetti on the table. Sans blipped into existence beside you and you jumped slightly.

"Is that necessary?" you muttered and he just shrugged innocently. You sighed as you sat down at the table. "Thank you Papyrus."

"YOU ARE VERY WELCOME HUMAN, ANY FRIEND OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS DESERVES NO LESS THAN FRIENDSHIP SPAGHETTI."

You smiled, looking down at the plate of spaghetti. Well, it looked edible, that was a start. You prayed that Undyne had taught Papyrus well as you lifted up a mouth full, keeping your face completely neutral as you put it into your mouth, chewing slowly. It was…surprisingly not that bad.

"Hey, this is really good Papyrus," you said with a bright smile. 

"OF COURSE IT IS, IT WAS MADE BY THE GREAT PAPYRUS," he said, seeming very happy with the praise.

"Do I get any of the friendship spaghetti?" Sans said, leaning his chin on his hand with his elbows propped up on the table.

"NO, NOT UNTIL YOU ARE FRIENDS WITH THE HUMAN," Papyrus said, and Sans gave him such a betrayed look that you couldn't help but start laughing. Sans then glared at you and you just smirked at him. "HUMAN YOU PLAY NICE TOO." You also gave Papyrus a betrayed look and this time it was Sans who was smirking at you. "YOU TWO SHOULD JUST GET ALONG."

"She's _human_ Paps," Sans said.

"Discrimination much," you muttered. "You think monsters are any better than humans?"

"Yes," Sans said, the lights vanishing from his eyes. "At least we didn't throw an entire species underground for hundreds of years."

"And yet you were all willing to kill a lost, frightened child if it meant getting freedom," you growled. "Where's the morality in that?"

"Don't bring Frisk into this," Sans said, standing up with his hands on the table as he glared at you.

"I wasn't talking about Frisk," you snapped, mirroring Sans's movement. There was a moment of silence where Sans was clearly trying to figure out what you meant, but wasn't coming to any conclusion. You took the moment to figure out who Frisk was…that must be the child who freed the monsters.

"ALRIGHT," Papyrus said. "EVERYONE CALM DOWN, WE'RE ALL FRIENDS HERE."

"If we're all friends here," Sans said, the lights appearing in his eyes again. "Then do I get the friendship spaghetti?" Papyrus made an exasperated noise but passed Sans a plate of spaghetti. Sans took it and vanished from the room, and you sat down, letting a breath.

"I'm sorry Papyrus," you said. "You invited me here and I just ended up yelling at your brother."

"IT'S OKAY HUMAN," Papyrus said. "YOU TWO JUST HAVE SOME DIFFERENCES THAT YOU NEED TO WORK OUT." He paused, thinking for a moment. "WOULD YOU LIKE TO WATCH MOVIES WITH ME? I HEAR DISNEY MOVIES ARE QUITE GOOD."

You smiled, nodding. "Yeah of course Paps." Papyrus brightened at the use of the nickname you'd picked up from Sans, and led the way back to the living room.

"WHICH DISNEY MOVIE IS YOUR FAVOURITE?" Papyrus asked, and you shuffled your feet nervously.

"I've uh…never seen a Disney movie…"

"WHAT?! BUT UNDYNE SAID ALL HUMANS HAVE SEEN DISNEY MOVIES."

Your expression fell flat and you sighed. "Well uh…I guess I'm just weird then. You choose one, okay?"

Papyrus nodded, and ended up choosing Peter Pan. He disappeared into another room and came back with a bundle of blankets. You took a blanket from him, wrapping it around yourself until you had a little blanket burrito going on.

"SANS DO YOU WANT TO WATCH DISNEY WITH US?" Papyrus called out, and a second later Sans appeared on the vacant couch. He didn't even glance at you, eyes glued to the TV screen. 

Papyrus played the movie, and you spent the next hour or so watching it with the skelebros. Papyrus's reactions to the movie were the cutest thing ever, he got so absorbed into the movie. Sans on the other hand barely reacted at all, and you guessed he was only there to keep an eye on you and Papyrus.

By the time the movie ended, it was getting pretty late. "I should be going," you said as Papyrus turned off the TV.

"BUT IT IS DARK OUTSIDE, IT MIGHT NOT BE SAFE TO WALK HOME," Papyrus said.

"I'll be okay Paps," you said with a reassuring smile. Papyrus still looked unsure, before his face lit up with an idea.

"SANS YOU CAN TELEPORT HER HOME."

You looked over at Sans. Sans looked at you. The both of you turned to Papyrus and said in sync, "No."

Papyrus threw up his hands in exasperation. "BROTHER JUST DO IT." He turned to Sans with a puppy dog eyed expression and Sans sighed, standing up. Papyrus almost sensed your objection before you said it and turned the puppy dog eyes at you. There was no way you could fight that.

"Fine," you muttered. Sans walked over to you, clearly unhappy with the situation.

"Where do you live kid?" he asked, and you gave him the address of your apartment complex. He held out his hand to you and you just took a moment to stare at it. "It's a hand. Get over it."

"What it's not that it's just…" you sighed. You'd burnt Papyrus without meaning to, and as much as you disliked Sans, you didn't want to do the same. It would raise questions for sure. You hesitated for another moment before putting your hand in Sans's. A sudden falling feeling overwhelmed you, your stomach dropping as if you were suspended in space. And then your feet touched the ground again, the world spinning around you. You staggered, feeling something grab on to you before you could fall.

"Falling for me already? Thought you hated me."

You glared up at Sans who was holding your shoulders to keep you steady. He let go as you stopped swaying, stepping back.

"Happens on everyones first time," Sans said.

"Well…thank you for bringing me home," you muttered quietly. Sans smirked.

"What was that, I couldn't quite hear you."

"I'm thanking you now shut up you bonehead," you snapped at him and he just smirked before vanishing. You glared at where he had been standing before turning to look at the building he had placed you out the front of. Great, now the skeleton knew where you lived. You walked into the building, going up the stairs to where your apartment was.

"Oh hey, _______!"

You internally groaned. This neighbour of yours had been trying to talk to you for months, his name was Ian, you think? You were doing your best to avoid him. You turned to him, not even bothering to hide your glare.

"What?"

"So I was wondering," Ian said, smiling brightly. "If maybe you'd like to go out sometime?" You were about to reply with an immediate but polite no, before he kept talking. "I'm sure I'd be better company than that monster who was harassing you out the front."

You paused, taking a moment to take a deep breath. "That monster wasn't harassing me. He was giving me a lift home."

"You would've been better off calling an Uber," Ian said. "You do know what they can do right? Man I wouldn't be surprised if that guy had killed you and thrown your body in a ditch somewhere."

"Got a thing against monsters buddy?" you asked, your voice lowering dangerously.

"Yeah, you don't?" he asked.

"Nope," you said sourly. "In fact, I find that they are much kinder and accepting than fucked up people like you who think that being human makes you superior."

"They're abominations!" Ian exclaimed.

"If you want to see a real abomination," you said, smirking. "Then go look in a mirror." With that you shoved past him, leaving him with a shocked expression on his face as you unlocked and entered your apartment. When you got inside, you leaned against the wall, breathing out slowly. 

All these monster hating humans just automatically classified you as one of them, imagine if they really knew what you were. All these categories and stereotypes that came with humanity…it was small moments like this where you wished you didn't have to be associated with them, that you didn't look like them. To just fit in on one side or the other, that would make everything so much easier, but no matter where you went you always stood out.

You dragged yourself into your bedroom, collapsing down on the bed face first. It was hard sometimes, not to wish that you were someone else entirely, that you'd never been born to a human mother. Or maybe that your father had never given you up…hell, you didn't even know who he was, you were too young to remember things well.

But you had a friend now, in Papyrus, who was too accepting for his own good. You smiled softly, thinking about your over-enthusiastic, happy friend, as well as Alphys and Undyne. Even Sans…well, Sans needed some improvement. A lot of improvement actually. He was kind of a jerk. You absently wondered how much you would need to annoy him for him to _really_ get mad…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still really wanna write fluff between these two, we're getting there, slowly but surely xD
> 
> *Gives everyone friendship spaghetti* I give food at the end of chapters, it's a common occurrence, get used to it xD


	4. In Which There Is Mario Kart and Cheating

You woke up to the background noises of cars passing by your apartment as you always did. It wasn't something you could get used to, not after the silent nights in the Underground. You sighed deeply before dragging yourself out of bed for another pointless day.

Most days since the barrier had broken had started off in this same way. All you ever seemed to do was try, and fail, at getting a job, or you spent your time trying to actually learn something about the human world. Recently you'd taken to online courses, seeing as they didn't require social interaction. And of course, astronomy took your immediate interest.

But everyday you were left with the same question, of what you were going to do with your future. Life wasn't just about survival anymore, now you could actually go out and do something. But…what exactly? Oh and there was always the problem of paying rent, you'd barely managed to get the small apartment in the first place and now you had no money income.

Your phone lit up with a message from Undyne, summoning you away from your depressive thoughts and loneliness.

 

**9:47, The Fish**

HEY PUNK

Alphys says you need practice magic, YOU SHOULD COME OVER AND TRAIN WITH ME

That is a demand, not a suggestion, get your ass over here

 

You smiled softly at the screen. There was no way to avoid Undyne's training, you'd never been able to when you were younger and you wouldn't be able to now. Of course, back then it was a little more tame. And besides, it wasn't like you were being productive today.

You threw on a pair of jeans and a plain t-shirt, putting on a jacket as you grabbed your bag. Before leaving the house, you thought for a moment before pulling on a pair of gloves. You headed off towards Alphys's house, assuming that was also where Undyne lived. The streets had humans walking along them, with the occasional monster here and there. You saw at one point a young human child playing with a monster child, and smiled slightly as you passed them. At least not all humans were jerks.

Passing into the monster district, you relaxed slightly, ignoring all the stares you got from the monsters. It's not like that was anything new.

When you got to Alphys's house, Undyne opened the door before you even had a chance to knock.

"HEY PUNK," she yelled. "READY FOR SOME INTENSE TRAINING?"

"Not really," you replied.

"TOO BAD," Undyne replied and grabbed your wrist, dragging you through the house. She dragged you all the way into the back garden and let go of you there. You leaned your bag against the back of the house and faced Undyne, crossing your arms.

"So what exactly does this 'training' include?" you asked. You weren't prepared for a spear to materialize in Undyne's hands, and for her to face you head on in a fighting stance. "Um, no."

"COME ON PUNK, FIGHT ME," Undyne yelled.

"Nope nope nope," you said, backing away with your hands raised. "There's got to be a better way than this Undyne, this won't end well."

Undyne sighed, straightening up and resting the spear on the ground. "Come on, there's no better way than fighting."

"Isn't that what you said last time?" you asked, and Undyne didn't reply for a moment.

"Fine then _______," she said. "We'll have to do this the boring way instead."

"At least boring is safe," you pointed out.

"YOU GET NOWHERE IN LIFE WITHOUT TAKING RISKS WIMP," Undyne said, pointing her spear at you. You moved a bit further away from the dangerous pointy thing. The spear then vanished and Undyne walked over to you, and held out her hand. "Take my hand without burning me."

"What?" you asked.

"You hurt Papyrus on contact, now do it without burning me," Undyne said.

"That was diff—"

"Just do it punk!"

You sighed, and pulled off one of your gloves before taking Undyne's hand in your own. You waited a moment, not feeling any rush of magic and having no reaction at all from Undyne. "It's different, I know you, I didn't know Papyrus."

"So it's just around people you don't know?" Undyne asked.

"It's whenever I'm uncomfortable or afraid," you replied. "Or nervous, or worried, or angry. So really, it's all the time."

"What about now, are ya feeling any of those now?"

"Maybe a little nervous," you muttered, and Undyne looked the tiniest bit hurt by that. "I haven't seen you in years, you think I'm just automatically going to be fine around you?"

"I'M NOT THAT INTIMIDATING," Undyne said and you just stared at her with a bitch face. "WHAT?"

"I'm not even going to bother trying to explain that," you replied. Undyne just shrugged.

"So you just need to get more comfortable around people then," Undyne said. "LET'S INVITE EVERYONE OVER!"

"What Undyne no why would you—" Undyne already had her phone out and was texting people. "Great. Please tell me Sans isn't going to be here."

"Where Papyrus goes he follows. And Papyrus is coming." You just groaned and Undyne put away her phone.

"Do you not have any control at all?" Undyne asked and you just raised an eyebrow at her, before holding out your hand. A small fire ball appeared, floating above several inches above your hand. It wasn't orange though, instead it was the same colour that your soul had been, a deep purple. "WOAH THAT'S COOL, WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO?"

"Nothing I can show you without burning down things," you said, but flicked the fireball towards her anyway. Undyne materialized a spear in an instant, hitting your little ball of fire out of existence. You felt a smile creep onto your face as you took on a fighting stance.

"Weren't you the one just telling me not to do this?" Undyne asked, watching as purple fire appeared, curling around your hands.

"What, turning down a fight Undyne?" you said teasingly.

"NEVER!" Undyne yelled, materializing spears in the air around her.

"So now you're trying to kill the human?"

You and Undyne both dropped the magic, Undyne's spears disappearing and your fire vanishing. You both turned to look at Sans, who was standing in the garden with you, hands stuffed in the pockets of his hoodie as he watched with confusion.

"I mean, I get that you like training, but don't you think the human is a bit fragile?" Sans said to Undyne. You scowled deeply, stepping towards Sans.

"You think I'm fragile?" you challenged. "Why don't you test that theory?"

"I think I'll avoid going to jail for murder," Sans said, shrugging as he walked past you and into the house, leaving you seething.

"Wow," Undyne said. "You two really love each other, don't you?"

"Oh yeah, totally," you said sarcastically, rolling your eyes.

"Well if he's here, then that means Papyrus probably is too!" Undyne said, running into the house. You took a moment to put the gloves back on your hands before following her.

You were expecting Papyrus and Sans, but you weren't expecting the small child sitting on Papyrus's shoulders, wearing a striped shirt and smiling gleefully.

"UNDYNE, WE HAVE COME AT YOUR SUMMONS TO PLAY VIDEO GAMES," Papyrus said.

"And we brought the kid," Sans said, pointing at the small child.

"FRISK!" Undyne yelled, and the kid jumped off Papyrus's shoulders, running over to Undyne. They made a quick motion with their hands, sign language you presumed, and pointed to you. "This is _______, she's a friend of ours." Frisk waved at you, and you offered a smile and a small wave back. They signed something to you, but you didn't know sign language, you'd never had the resources to learn it.

"Uh, sorry, I don't…" you said, trailing off. Frisk just waved it off, instead grabbing your hand before you could pull away and dragging you into the living room. You gave Undyne a helpless look but she just laughed and followed you. Frisk ran around the room, grabbing two Wii remotes and setting everything up in record time. They passed you one of the remotes with a smile while you were just standing there frozen. "I uh…" Frisk pointed to the TV, where Mario Kart had appeared on the screen.

"Kid loves that game," Undyne said. "It's pretty much your initiation into our group of friends."

"Okay," you said, drawing out the word. "I've never…really played Mario Kart before." There was a moment of silence, from Papyrus and Sans too who had followed the three of you.

"We've been here six months," Sans said. "We've all played it. You've lived here your whole life, you have no excuse." You glared at him.

"Maybe all _humans_ don't follow the stereotypes," you growled, but Frisk nudged your leg, shaking their head. You gave them a confused look and they ran over to Sans, grabbing his hand and pulling him over. You were surprised to see him let Frisk drag him easily, and then you noticed the soft look he was giving them…it was the nicest expression you'd seen on his face so far. He actually looked happy, calm, even relaxed, instead of how he was normally tense around you.

You were knocked from your thoughts as Frisk placed Sans in front of you and pointed at the two of you before signing words. Sans sighed, and looked at you.

"Sorry," he muttered. You blinked in surprise. Did he actually just… Frisk nudged you and pointed at Sans.

"Oh come on…" you started, but Frisk glared at you, crossing their arms. You pouted, before looking up at Sans. "Sorry for snapping at you." You'd never really been able to deny children, and Frisk was kind of adorable. So was the way they interacted with Sans. You disregarded that last thought immediately.

Frisk smiled brightly before settling back on the couch, setting up a match on Mario Kart. You looked at the controller still in your hand and copied how Frisk was holding it, settling down beside them. Out of the corner of your eye you noticed Sans saying something to Undyne quietly, and Undyne replying quickly before turning away from Sans. Sans narrowed his eyes, eye sockets, whatever, before glancing at you. You quickly looked back at the TV screen.

"So, how exactly do I play this?" you asked.

"IT IS SIMPLE," Papyrus said. "YOU RACE THE CART AROUND A TRACK, USING SHELLS, MUSHROOMS AND BANANAS TO THWART ANY ENEMIES THAT LAY BETWEEN YOU AND VICTORY." You looked between Papyrus and Frisk, Frisk nodding to confirm what Papyrus had said.

"You have no idea how ridiculous that sounds to someone who's never seen the game," you muttered and Frisk laughed. Well, their version of laughing. They still made a sound while laughing, but it was quieter and more breathy than a normal laugh.

Frisk started the game before even teaching you the controls, and you gave a very dignified yelp as you immediately drove your car off the track in your spur of button mashing. Frisk laughed again and you gritted your teeth with determination as you slowly figured out the controls. By the time Frisk had won the race, you'd gotten the hang of it.

"LET ME VERSE THE HUMAN," Papyrus said, and both you and Frisk looked at him, before looking at each other.

"Here's an idea, don't call me human, and we won't have any confusion," you said.

"Why not, it's what you _are_ isn't it?" Sans said, from where he had pretty much melted onto the couch. You threw the controller at him. The controller stopped moving mid air, a blue glow around it, and Sans grabbed it from the air. "Thanks," he said, turning to the game. "Think you can beat me this time kid?" Frisk jumped back to attention, starting another round while you were sitting there glaring at Sans.

"DO NOT WORRY _______, HE'S NOT NORMALLY LIKE THIS," Papyrus said. "JUST GIVE HIM TIME."

"I can hear you bro," Sans said from where he was in first place, looking like he was putting almost no effort in. Frisk was in a state of intense concentration. You just shook your head, turning to watch the game.

Frisk got the lead for a while, with Sans in second place. Right before the finish line, Sans threw a banana peel at Frisk and managed to overtake them while they were recovering, taking first place at the finish.

"Looks like you really _slipped up_ there kid," Sans said, winking at Frisk. Frisk giggled, before turning to you and holding out the controller.

"Oh no, there's no way I could beat any of you," you said.

"What, too scared of my skill to even try?" Sans taunted, smirking at you. You heard the challenge in his tone, you couldn't just ignore that.

"Please, the only one here with no guts is you," you retorted, snatching the controller from Frisk's hands. Sans looked at you, slowly registering the pun, and his smile became a little more genuine as he started the game between you two.

Now, this was only the second time you'd played the game. You really didn't have much hope against Sans. That is, until you were on the final lap and got a blue shell. Papyrus and Undyne were cheering you on, and Frisk noticed the item you were holding, laughing quietly to them self.

You threw the blue shell, and it hit Sans right at a part in the track that had no barriers over the edge, making Sans fall into the abyss. Sans noticed you catching up and sat up a little straighter, getting back on track. You still weren't in first, but you weren't too far behind him.

And then Frisk hit the controller out of Sans's hands.

You took the lead as Sans tried to grab the controller, that Undyne had grabbed from the floor and was now holding away from Sans. You started laughing with Frisk as you crossed the finish line in first, and Sans just used his magic to snatch the controller back from Undyne, completing the race in about fifth place.

"Good job kid!" you said brightly, high fiving Frisk as the two of you laughed together. Undyne tried to jump in on the high five, instead knocking the two of you over, and the three of you just fell to the floor in a mass of giggles. Sans meanwhile was just staring at the screen.

"That's cheating," he eventually said, as you three regained your composure.

"Still looks like a win to me," you said, smirking at Sans.

"I demand a rematch," he said, but you shook your head, passing the controller to Papyrus.

"I think it's Paps' turn," you said, continuing to smirk as Sans just stared at you. And he continued to stare as Papyrus started a round against Frisk. "You know it's rude to stare." Sans didn't say anything, just sort of narrowed his eyes before shrugging and turning away.

You looked at him with confusion before turning back to watch the game, occasionally glancing at him out of the corner of your eye. What had he been thinking when he was just staring at you? It didn't look like the same expression of hate that you'd previously seen…damn it was hard to read him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that was fun, a little cliché, and I spent about twenty minutes trying to think of a pun for Sans to say before giving up. I'll have to up my pun game in future chapters xD
> 
> *gives everyone muffins*


	5. In Which A Skeleton Tries To Be Nice

You'd spent several more hours at Undyne and Alphys's house, with the skelebros and Frisk. Alphys came home from the lab eventually and joined the group, watching Frisk pretty much beat everyone at the game. Frisk eventually gave up their remote and sat on their knees on the couch beside you, before poking your shoulder.

"Yeah?" you said, and Frisk pulled your phone from your pocket. You made a small indignant sound, but then noticed Frisk was typing out words on your screen.

_"Why do you and Sans keep arguing?"_

"Dunno, guess he's just a jerk," you said, ignoring how Sans glanced over at you at that comment.

_"But he's really nice,"_ Frisk typed. _"So how'd you meet Undyne?"_

"That's a long story for another time," you replied.

_"Could you be more vague?"_

"If I wanted to, definitely," you said, smiling slightly. Frisk rolled their eyes, before typing again.

_"Why did Undyne invite us over?"_

"To play video games," you replied, and Frisk just folded their arms, taking none of your shit. You sighed. "I don't really know honestly." Frisk seemed satisfied with that answer.

_"Why do you have a monster phone? Humans don't have these yet."_

You read over the text several times, trying to think of any viable answer. "Uh…Alphys gave it to me." Frisk thought on this for a moment before nodding. Well, it wasn't technically a lie. Frisk handed you back your phone and you looked at the time. It was nearing 11 at night.

"I should probably be heading home," you said.

"You can just stay over punk," Undyne said, mostly focused on her match against Papyrus.

"No I wouldn't want to intrude…" you said, trailing off.

"You wouldn't be intruding, remember how long you lived with us before?" There was a slow beat of silence, before Undyne realized what she'd said, and Sans was just staring at you very suspiciously. So was Frisk. Alphys looked stressed, and Papyrus was just still playing the game.

There was really no way you could explain what Undyne has just said to the rest of them. You knew Papyrus wouldn't care, Frisk would probably be fine with it, but Sans…he was too unpredictable, and you didn't want any word of this getting out to people, especially not humans.

"Yeah, look I'm just going to leave," you said, breaking the silence. You stood up, stretching and feeling your spine crack as you did so, you'd been sitting down for ages. You heard a strange sound from across the room and looked to see Sans…was he blushing? There was a strange blue tinge on his cheeks and he was staring pointedly at the ground. You watched him for another moment before he just vanished. "Well okay then," you muttered, and looked at Frisk who was wiggling their eyebrows suggestively. "Woah, no, don't get ideas kid."

"GOODBYE HUMAN, HAVE A SAFE TRIP HOME," Papyrus said, still focused on the game.

"COME BY AGAIN SOMETIME NERD," Undyne said. Hah as if you had a choice, she'd drag you out of your apartment if she had to.

Frisk surprised you by running over and throwing their arms around your waist. After a moment you hugged them back, smiling.

"See ya later Frisk," you said. Frisk waved in return, and you walked out of the house, leaving your growing group of friends.

Out in the silence of the night, your thoughts finally had time to think in peace. You'd managed to get that whole time without any real magic issues, maybe Undyne was right that you just needed to be more comfortable around people…that didn't help for other situations though, if you got angry then there's no telling what would happen.

A cold breeze brushed over you, and you rubbed your arms in an attempt to warm yourself. You summoned a little bit of the fire magic to warm yourself up, sparks of purple flames appearing around your hands.

"Hey."

You immediately dropped the magic as you looked up at…Sans. That was unexpected. He wasn't looking at you, but instead just held out his hand for you. You looked between his hand and his avoiding eyes, and slowly reached out and took his hand. A moment later you felt the same falling sensation you had when Sans teleported you the first time. You stumbled less on landing this time, but Sans still grabbed your shoulders to steady you.

"Thanks," you muttered, and you stood there waiting for Sans to do something.

"So uh," Sans said, still not looking at you. "Frisk seems to like you."

"And you seem to like Frisk, thought you hated humans," you said, glaring. Sans looked at you finally, glaring slightly.

"I'm trying to be nice here," he said. "Look, I don't trust you, but I trust Frisk. So um…yeah." And then he disappeared, leaving you standing alone outside of your apartment wondering what in the world had just happened.

~~~

Sans appeared back in Alphys and Undyne's house, right back on the couch he had originally vanished from when your back had made that annoying sound when you were stretching. It wasn't your fault, it's not like you knew it was a little provocative to skeletons.

"So Sans," Undyne said, not even surprised at his sudden return. "Got a little flustered there, did ya?"

"Shut up fish," Sans replied. Frisk giggled and made a motion with their hands.

_"I think you like her,"_ Frisk signed, smiling innocently yet suggestively at the same time.

"And I think she has a bone to pick with me," Sans said, shrugging. "She doesn't like me kiddo."

"MAYBE BECAUSE YOU USED MAGIC ON HER AND THEN YELLED AT HER," Papyrus said. Frisk glared at Sans accusingly.

"She hurt Paps," Sans said quietly, the lights in his eyes vanishing. Frisk seemed confused by this.

_"She wouldn't,"_ they signed.

"Kid I watched it happen," Sans said. Frisk shook their head.

_"How could she even have done that?"_

Sans narrowed his eye sockets. Frisk had a point, Papyrus had burns on his arms from hugging you. Maybe it there was some human illness that Sans didn't know about, and you clearly didn't like physical contact with people, you were even wearing gloves all day.

"I-it's a long s-story," Alphys said quietly. "D-don't judge her s-so harshly S-Sans."

"I'd be nicer if she stopped getting under my skin," Sans said.

_"You don't have any skin,"_ Frisk signed.

"Heh, you got me there kid," Sans said, winking at Frisk. Frisk laughed and Sans just smiled at them. These guys all had a point though, other than when Sans had provoked you, you'd seemed pretty nice…

~~~

The next day, you were sitting on the couch in your apartment, curled up reading a book in peace. It was something on human history, somewhat interesting but it really did just seem to be proving humanities inability to learn from their mistakes. A sudden knock on your door drew you from the book. You bookmarked the page before walking over to the door to open it, and saw your landlord standing there.

"_______," he started. "I've given you several warnings already, and you failed to pay your rent again yesterday." You winced. It was true, you hadn't paid for the last three months, you were surprised you'd gotten away with it for this long.

"I promise I'll pay it soon I just—"

"No, this was your last chance." He sighed. "You have one day to gather up all your stuff and leave." He paused again. "I'm sorry, but you know how things are."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," you muttered. You didn't even let him say anything else before you shut the door and slid to the floor, putting your head in your hands, willing away any tears that dared to fall. After finally having a proper home it was going to be taken from you so easily. And it wasn't easy to live on the streets of the human world, at least not from what you'd gathered. The monsters at least could use the pity card, but you'd just be seen as a useless person who never got their life together.

"Uh…bad time?"

"Jesus fucking Christ Sans!" you yelled at the skeleton who was standing in the middle of your apartment with his hands in his hoodie pockets. "Ever heard of using the door?!"

"I tried, you didn't answer," Sans said. Wow how long had you been zoned out on the floor for? "Shame, I had a knock knock joke prepared and everything."

"Why are you here?" you said, standing up and wiping your eyes. You refused to cry, especially in front of this guy. He was now looking at you with what seemed like legitimate concern, god you must look like a mess.

"Well, Paps was getting worried that you weren't answering your phone," Sans said. "So he made me come over to check on you." You thought for a moment. Yep, you'd put your phone on silent while reading, it was easier.

"I was just reading," you said quietly, walking past Sans and over to where the book lay on the table.

"Why are you reading about human history?" he asked, looking at the book cover.

"Don't you ever read about monster history?" you retorted. "It's interesting, I love reading about how our species fucked themselves over." You had to literally force out the words 'our species,' it just didn't feel right.

"You…don't really like humanity, do you?" Sans said slowly.

"It's taken you that long to figure that out?" you muttered, putting the book over on your pile of books. You stared at the pile sadly for a moment, wondering how you were going to take these with you. "So, why are you being nice all of a sudden?"

"I was talking to Frisk," Sans said. "Kid convinced me to give you a chance. Who knows, maybe you're just a bit bonely." You stared at him blankly and then he did finger guns at you, and you just started laughing.

"That was so bad," you said between laughs.

"I happen to think I'm pretty _humerus_ ," Sans said, winking.

"Oh no Sans that's terrible please stop," you said but you only started laughing more. He grinned, pleased with your reaction. When your laughter died down, the smile dropped from your face again. "You should uh…you should probably be getting back to Papyrus. He'll be wondering where you are."

"…okay," Sans said. He hesitated a moment. "Are you…gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine," you managed to force out, putting on a fake smile. Sans didn't look convinced. "Just go bonehead, I'm fine." Sans chuckled softly at the pun, before disappearing from your room.

You collapsed onto the couch, choking back the sob that threatened to emerge. It was just another failed attempt at a stable life, one that was remotely normal and happy. You should know by now that things like that just don't work out for you. They never had, and at this rate they never would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look, they're FINALLY getting somewhere. I may have spent ages just looking at possible puns that Sans could use xD
> 
> Writing this is making me want to go play through pacifist again, but my game is stuck in a never ending loop of fighting Sans in genocide...and it's not that I can't beat him, it's that I can't bring myself to save after I've beaten him
> 
> *gives all you lovely skelelovers some icecream*


	6. In Which Sans Doesn't Realize He Cares

You handed over the key to the landlord of the apartment building, a duffle bag hanging over your shoulder and a small suitcase beside you. You'd stuffed all your clothes and other miscellaneous stuff into the duffle bag and had put all your books into the suitcase. It really wasn't much stuff in total, you didn't have the money to buy a lot of things.

"_______, be careful out there, alright?" your landlord said, and you just nodded numbly, not looking up at him. Without another word you walked out of the building carrying your things and…well you just stood there for a moment. There was only one place you could possibly go, but the idea of actually living with other people wasn't too appealing…however, it was your only option.

You headed off towards the monster district, carrying your belongings with you. You got several confused looks from people passing by, others probably just assumed you were a tourist or something. When you crossed over into the monster district, every monster you passed stared at you. You stuck out like a sore thumb, the human carrying luggage through the monster district.

"HUMAN!"

You winced slightly at the familiar voice, turning to see Papyrus running over. And of course Sans was with him, staring at the suitcase at your feet. You stood in front of it, in some bad attempt to hide the fact that you were homeless.

"Hey Pappy," you said, smiling tiredly at the hyperactive skeleton.

"WHY ARE YOU CARRYING SO MUCH STUFF?" Papyrus asked, before picking up your suitcase. "I WILL HELP YOU _______, WHERE ARE YOU TAKING IT?"

You almost laughed and cried at his cluelessness to the situation. Bless his innocent soul. "I'm going over to Undyne and Alphys' place," you said. Papyrus nodded and started marching off in that direction, carrying your suitcase with ease. You followed slowly, Sans falling into step beside you.

"You said you were okay," he said quietly, so Papyrus wouldn't hear.

"I am, I just…" you trailed off, the words getting choked up in your throat. Sans looked at you, and without saying anything just gently pulled the duffle bag from your grip and put it over his own shoulder, continuing walking in silence. "I…thank you…"

"Don't mention it," Sans said, and the two of you walked the rest of the way without saying anything or looking at each other, Papyrus happily walking up ahead of the two of you.

When you arrived at Undyne and Alphys' house, Papyrus knocked loudly on the door before you could change your mind about the situation. Undyne slammed the door open, about to yell some enthusiastic thing before her eyes settled on you, looking down and probably red eyed, and the bags that the skelebros were holding.

"What happened?" Undyne asked, walking past Papyrus and over to you.

"WE ARE HELPING _______ CARRY THESE BAGS," Papyrus said.

"I couldn't pay my rent so I got kicked out," you muttered. Papyrus heard this and looked at the bags, before looking at Sans with a shocked expression. Sans just nodded at him and Papyrus looked at you guiltily. "Hey it's okay Paps—"

"NO IT IS NOT HUMAN, WHY WOULD SOMEONE KICK YOU OUT WHEN YOU ARE CLEARLY STRUGGLING TO GAIN MONEY?"

You smiled at his innocence. "Don't ask me. Humans are fucked up." Sans glanced sideways at you, probably wondering again why you hate humans so much. "So uh—"

"You can stay here nerd," Undyne said, leading you into the house, the skelebros following. "I gotta ask though, why'd you come here of all places?"

"I um…" You looked down, avoiding eye contact with all three of them. "I didn't have anywhere else to go…"

"Nowhere?" Sans asked. "At the start of the week these guys didn't even know who you were."

You didn't reply, just shuffled your feet nervously. You noticed a familiar purple glow around your hands, and rubbed them together, trying to get rid of it. It didn't fade away like it normally did, however. You instead just stuffed your hands into your pockets, hoping no one would notice.

"Come on _______," Undyne said, leading you into the living room and making you sit down on the couch. She sat beside you, her hand on your shoulder. You wanted to shove her hand off to stop her getting hurt, but it was comforting. Sans and Papyrus followed you in, sitting down and facing you.

"WHY DON'T YOU GET A JOB?" Papyrus asked. "THEN YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO AFFORD A NEW HOME."

"I've tried," you muttered. You felt the magic around you hands intensify and tried to will it away, but it wouldn't go. "It um…never worked out."

"BUT WHY NOT? YOU ARE A LOVELY HUMAN, I DO NOT SEE WHY SOMEONE WOULDN'T—"

"Paps I love you and all but please shut up," you said quietly. Sans narrowed his eyes slightly but you paid him no attention. You were too focused on keeping your magic in check, and even then you weren't succeeding. Undyne removed her hand from your shoulder, looking down at it. "Undyne…"

"It's nothing punk," Undyne said, smiling toothily at you. She tried to hide her hand, but you saw it before she could. It wasn't quite burnt, but it had definitely been getting there. "I think you need a bit of time to yourself, let's kick these skeletons out."

"BUT—" Papyrus started, but Sans just shook his head at him. Papyrus looked dejected as he stood and walked to the door. "WE WILL RETURN WHEN YOU ARE FEELING BETTER _______." 

"Thanks Pappy," you said quietly. Sans walked over to the door as Papyrus walked out, stopped to glance back at you. More specifically at the purple glow coming from your pockets. But he didn't say anything, and simply walked out to follow Papyrus.

"Punk you're glowing all over the place," Undyne said.

"Oh really, I didn't realize," you said sarcastically. Undyne looked at you thoughtfully, before an idea occurred to her.

"YOU JUST NEED TO WORK OUT ALL THESE BAD EMOTIONS," she yelled, jumping up with a look of determination.

"How exactly do I do that without burning things?" you asked.

"YOU DON'T!"

You gave Undyne a confused look. "Then how…"

"YA NEED TO USE YOUR MAGIC AND WEAR IT OUT!" Undyne yelled. She had that spark in her eye, there was no stopping her now. "COME ON YOU WIMP, LET'S FIX THIS!"

"I don't think this is a good idea…" you said, but Undyne was ignoring you now, grabbing your wrist and pulling you up, letting go before you could burn her.

"LET'S GO PUNK!" she yelled, barging out of the house. You sighed before following her, your hands stuffed in your pockets.

Undyne led you confidently through the monster district. You tried to keep your head down, avoiding any attention given to you. If people had no reason to look, they'd be less likely to notice the growing purple glow that was starting to pulse from your chest. Undyne suddenly pulled you off the path, into the forest that you recognized as the one leading to Mt Ebott.

"Really, a forest," you stated once you were a fair distance into the forest. "I don't know how you thought this was smart."

"ALL THE MORE REASON FOR YOU TO CONTROL YOUR MAGIC," Undyne yelled. "IF YOU DON'T, THE FOREST CATCHES FIRE."

"Undyne," you whined. "I really don't want to—"

"YOU GOT NO CHOICE NERD!"

You glared at her, watching a spear materialize in her hands. You sighed, taking a deep breath and reaching for the magic inside you. The purple glow from your chest intensified, the faint outline of your soul visible, and you knew that your eyes had probably switched to purple in that moment.

"Are you sure?" you asked, holding your palm out and letting a purple fireball appear.

"HELL YES!" Undyne yelled. You noticed the ground around you begin to glow in light blue spots, and jumped out of the way before the spears shot upwards from the ground.

"Going to have to be faster than that," you said, smirking. Undyne smiled enthusiastically, and thus the battle between the two of you began. You dodged most of her attacks with ease, and when she froze you in place and attacked you head on, you held up your hand and countered each spear with a wall of fire. In return, you attacked with fireballs that you could materialize all around Undyne, as well as jets of purple flames and on occasion you were brave enough to bring flames up from the ground, although you were much more careful with that attack.

It took a while for the two of you two tire each other out, and Undyne finally got the better of you, a spear freezing moments before it hit you when you failed to block it.

"You've gotten better," Undyne said, breathing heavily.

"You've gotten slower," you teased, and Undyne just laughed good heartedly.

"Feeling better punk?" she asked you, and you looked down at your hands where the purple glow had faded.

"I guess so," you said, sitting on the ground and pulling your knees into your chest. Sure your fun little match had taken off the edge of your magic, but that didn't change the fact that you still had no home. "I just…I don't know what I'm going to do."

"You'll figure it out," Undyne said, sitting beside you. "You managed to survive this long didn't you?"

You scoffed. "Yeah, in the Underground, where everyone was a monster. Humans are so much worse you know."

"There's nice humans out there, you just have to get passed the losers," Undyne said. "And you can stay with me and Alphys for as long as you need to." She paused. "I'm warning ya though, you'll be seeing a lot more of Sans."

"I…that's okay," you said quietly. "He's alright."

"FINALLY SOME PROGRESS," Undyne said. "I've been waiting for one of you to break the others neck, me and Alphys had bets on who was going to snap first."

You snorted. "Wow. So I guess no one wins that."

"We had another bet on whether or not the two of you would end up making out."

You choked on air and started coughing violently, catching your breath before staring at Undyne. "What the hell?!"

"The tension is there," she whispered dramatically, and you just shook your head in disbelief. You and Sans, as if that'd ever work out.

~~~

Sans was looking over the notes on Alphys's desk at the science lab, while Alphys tinkered with one of the scientific instruments. "You seem very sure about this theory about the child of a human and monster," he said to her, reading some of her scribbles.

"I-I just have…a h-hunch," Alphys said, looking over at him nervously. He nodded absently, and continued looking over her notes. He looked onto the screen of the computer on the same desk, that was connected to the thing they used to scan souls. There was data up from the last time it'd been used, and the results showing up on screen… Sans glanced over at Alphys, reading over the text in silence. It was showing the results of a scan of a single soul, both monster and human. Sans looked away from the computer as Alphys walked back over to write something down.

"Did Undyne tell you what happened with _______?" Sans asked.

"Y-yeah, she t-texted me about i-it," Alphys said.

"Do you know why Undyne kicked me and Paps out then?" Sans said. Alphys looked at Sans with confusion. "She said _______ needed time to herself, but even an idiot could tell she needed the opposite."

"O-oh, w-well, that was p-probably because…" Alphys trailed off, and Sans waited for the end of the sentence that never came. "Oh, l-look, I-I found the e-equation," Alphys said, picking up a random piece of paper that had nothing to do with what she was doing.

Sans narrowed his eyes. Just another fact about you that didn't add up. He was suspicious of you, he didn't trust you…but even then, he couldn't help but think about how broken you'd looked when he appeared in your apartment, when you thought no one was watching, and how easily you'd pretended that everything was okay…but then how you'd smiled and laughed at his puns, a smile that wasn't forced, so bright that it lit up the room…

He shook the thoughts from his head. No, he still didn't trust you. And he was going to figure out what was up with you, before you could do anything to harm his brother or his friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've always liked writing fight scenes, but I didn't want to draw that out too much, so that was quite short :P And Paps is too precious for this world, I love him so much, second to Sans of course :P
> 
> *hands out some more cookies*


	7. In Which This Is Pretty Much A Date

You were laying on the couch in Alphys and Undyne's house, staring at the ceiling. Really you were just bored, and tired, but no matter how hard you tried you couldn't fall asleep. Maybe because it was still the middle of the day.

"Feeling any better pal?"

This time, you only slightly jumped at Sans' sudden appearance. "A little, yeah," you said, looking up at him without moving. He had appeared behind your head, looking directly down at you. "Have you ever teleported to where someone was already standing?"

"Yeah," Sans said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "It was sorta on purpose."

You scoffed. "Why?"

Sans shrugged. "It was Mettaton. He was talking to Paps. I wanted him to leave so I did that and made it looked like an accident." You laughed at the mental image of Sans just appearing on top of the robot that everyone in the Underground knew. "So. Enjoying the ceiling?"

"It's a very lovely ceiling," you replied. "Just look at all the colours." It was a white ceiling. Sans laughed lightly, and there was a moment of awkward silence. "Don't you have anyone else to go and annoy?"

"Nope, I've got _no body,_ " Sans said, winking. You snorted with laughter, before rolling off the couch and standing up in a manner that you liked to think was graceful. From Sans expression it evidently wasn't, he was clearly trying to hold back a laugh.

"Shut up, I'm the definition of graceful," you said, crossing your arms.

"I didn't say anything," Sans said.

"But you were thinking it," you retorted.

"So you can read my thoughts," Sans said. "What am I thinking now?"

You narrowed your eyes at his completely blank expression. "Probably some bad pun."

"Nah, that's only my thoughts for 60% of the time." He paused. "Tibia honest, I was thinking of Snowdin."

"Oh really, why?" you asked, ignoring the skeleton pun.

"Because it's a place from the Underground that you shouldn't know."

You felt the atmosphere change, and although the lights in his eyes didn't disappear, you could feel the suspicion practically radiating off of him. "Well I—"

"But you reacted as if you knew it," Sans said, his eye sockets narrowing. You pouted at him.

"And here I thought you came here because you wanted to be friends," you said, glaring at him. Sans faltered, his expression softening. "If you just came here to interrogate me on these stupid theories you have about me, then get out."

"Wait, kid, I—" Sans sighed, looking down sadly, and you felt almost bad for him. "I'm sorry, it's just there's a lot about you that doesn't add up."

"Tell me about it," you muttered. "Look, I can promise you that I'm not here to hurt anyone, I would never hurt anyone on purpose. But I have my own damn issues that you need to keep your nonexistent nose out of, got it?" A slight purple glow emanated from your hands, and you put your hands in your pockets. Sans watched you for a very long moment, a look of confliction on his face.

"You're right," Sans said finally. "I'm sorry." There was a moment of silence where you really did try to be mad at him, but the feeling just faded away as you looked at the guilty expression on his face. He looked up suddenly, smiling again. "We should just start over." He held out his hand. "Hi. I'm Sans, Sans the skeleton."

You smiled. "Nice to meet you Sans, I'm _______." You reached out to shake his hand, willing away the purple glow successfully for once…and there was a whoopee cushion in his hand. Of course there was. The two of you stood in silence holding hands as the farting sound echoed around the room. As it faded out, you started laughing loudly. "I just—how did I not expect that?" you said through your laughter.

"Dunno kid," Sans said, winking. "So. Are ya hungry?"

Well now that you thought about it, definitely. You'd been laying on the couch for far too long. "Yep."

"Wanna go to Grillby's?" Sans asked, smiling at you. He looked so much kinder when he smiled.

"Sure," you said, smiling at the cute skeleton. What. No, you didn't just think that. Sans held out his hand to you and you took it without a second thought, appearing right in the middle of Grillby's. You stumbled only slightly this time, and Sans steadied you easily.

"Heya Grillby," Sans said, walking over to the counter where the fire monster stood. Grillby didn't even say anything before handing Sans a bottle. Of…ketchup? Odd. Sans turned to you. "What do you want pal?"

"I guess I'll have a burger," you said.

"Sounds good," Sans said. "Grillbz?" Grillby nodded and walked off into the back room. Sans then uncapped the lid on the ketchup, and drank it. He just, drank it. Straight from the bottle.

"I'm torn between asking why you're drinking ketchup and how you're actually drinking it seeing as you're a skeleton," you said. "Like…what even?"

"You just wish you could _ketchup_ to my level," Sans said, winking. You groaned, but couldn't hide the smile that was spreading across your lips. Sans chuckled at your reaction. Grillby came back then, carrying two plates with burgers on them, placing them in front of the two of you. "Want any?" Sans said, holding the ketchup out to you.

"I get the feeling you need it more than I do," you said, smiling at the dork. "I also get the feeling that you didn't put the cap on properly, so nope."

"Damn, well suit yourself," Sans said, twisting the cap on properly before putting an unhealthy amount of ketchup on his own burger. You shook your head, but it was actually sort of endearing. It was just such a Sans thing to do…you smiled sort of softly at him before turning to your own burger, digging in.

"So," Sans said while the two of you were eating. "I don't actually know much about you."

"Could say the same about you bonehead," you replied. Sans laughed lightly at the nickname. "And if you really want to know something, you can just ask you know. Better than asking me suspicious and vague questions." Sans looked a little guilty at that, and you felt a little twinge of guilt for throwing that back at him.

"Well, I'll go with something easy," Sans said. "What was your family like?"

Hah. Easy. Sure, whatever you say Sans. You felt that familiar rush as your magic rushed into your hands, eliciting a slight purple glow. "Well…that's actually not easy at all," you said quietly.

"Ah sorry," Sans said, glancing down at your hands.

"It's fine," you said, waving him off, willing away the glow. "I never knew my parents, my mother died giving birth to me, and I guess I was too young to remember my dad…he uh, gave me to someone he trusted to look after me, and she raised me…" You trailed off, noticing the small fact that Grillby was listening in on your story now. Sans noticed your pause.

"He's harmless, don't mind him," Sans said. "All flame but no bite." Grillby glared at Sans.

"I apologize, it just sounded similar to something that happened to the daughter of a friend of mine," Grillby said.

"Oh?" you said, perking up. "Whatever happened to them?"

"The daughter died," Grillby said, almost harshly, turning away and going back to serving customers.

"Huh," Sans said. "Never seen Grillby look so _put out_ like that." You were watching Grillby curiously…maybe it was possible that he knew your dad, and if they thought you were dead then that would explain why no one had ever looked for you. "Uh, _______?"

"What?" you said, snapping out of it. "Right, sorry. Well anyway, what about you and Paps? Got anyone else?"

"We used to," Sans said. "He…well I guess you could say one of his experiments went wrong."

"Oh, I'm sorry," you said quietly. There was a moment of silence between the two of you. "This just got awkward."

"You're telling me," Sans said. By now the two of you had finished the burgers, and Grillby came by to collect your plates without saying a word. "Hey, I gotta ask…"

"This can't be good," you said, wincing in preparation for whatever Sans was going to ask. He watched you carefully for a moment before closing his eyes.

"Never mind, I forgot what it was," he said. You faltered, surprised. "Ready to head back?"

"Yeah," you said quietly, and Sans stood before holding his hand out to you. This teleporting business was becoming normal for you. You took his hand, the thought that you could burn him barely crossing your mind as you did so. A moment later the two of you were back in Undyne and Alphys's house. You didn't stumble this time, but let your hand linger in Sans's for a moment longer than what was necessary…after so long avoiding touching anyone, the physical contact felt…nice.

"Hey," Sans said quietly, looking down and shuffling his feet. "I uh…just want to say that I'm sorry for potentially trying to kill you when we first met."

"It's okay," you said, putting your hand on his shoulder. Woah where did that confidence come from? But the feeling of magic bubbling up was nowhere to be found, so you didn't worry about hurting him. He looked up at you, smiling softly. "I mean, I wasn't exactly the nicest either."

"Heh, I guess we both failed the first impression," Sans said. You smiled, pulling your arm back.

"Hell yeah we did," you said. "And you know, for such a bonehead, you're alright."

"You too kid," Sans said, winking. Was that a flirty thing or did he wink all the time? You had seen him wink at Frisk, but that was always when he was making a pun. "I should get back to Paps, he'll be wondering where I am." He paused for a long moment. "You're gonna be okay, right? Living here with Alphys and Undyne?"

"Yeah," you said, shrugging. "They're nice people. And I mean it's just until…" Until what exactly? You'd failed at getting a job several times, why would that change now?

Sans must have noticed your expression drop. "Hey, it's okay. They'll help ya get back on your feet. And I'll keep an eye socket out for you too." He winked on the last part and you couldn't help smiling.

"Thank you Sans," you said.

"No problem," Sans said. "I'll see you around _______." He smiled at you before disappearing into thin air, leaving you alone with a wide smile on your face and a strange fluttery feeling in your chest. For all the crap you had given each other, Sans was actually a pretty great guy when he chose to be.

"If that wasn't a date, then I don't know what was," Undyne said, leaning against the doorway. You picked up a pillow off the couch and threw it at her, accidentally engulfing it in purple flames as you did. Undyne jumped out of the way, looking at the flaming pillow on the ground. "Woah, seriously?"

"Uh, sorry," you said, flicking out the flames with ease. You smiled slightly as the magic obeyed you for once. "But no, we were just hanging out."

"Yeah, and I was just _hanging out_ with Alphys while you were gone," Undyne said, giving you a bitch face. You blinked slowly at her, processing her statement.

"I'm not even going to ask," you said, before walking out of the room as Undyne started laughing loudly. You smiled slightly to yourself, feeling legitimately happy for the first time in a while. This was nice, you could get used to this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally some interaction xD I really wish my pun game was stronger, it'd be fun to have them go back and forth with puns, but I have not yet reached Sans' level of pun mastery. I like to think I'm getting better though xD
> 
> I've gotten sick out of nowhere, so heres hoping all you people are feeling better than I am :) *hands out cookies*


	8. In Which The Use Of Magic Is Just A Little Obvious

"WAKE UP PUNK!"

You groaned, rolling over and burying your face into the pillow on the couch. Your neck was a little stiff and the couch wasn't quiet long enough to stretch all the way out, but it was the best spot for you to sleep in the house.

"You leave me no choice," Undyne said, and you heard the familiar sound of a spear materializing. You hurriedly jumped up, facing Undyne in a defensive stance. She was smiling toothily, a spear held lazily in her hand. "Knew that'd get you up."

"That's just unfair," you muttered sleepily, sitting back down on the couch. The spear vanished as Undyne laughed.

"I want you to come to work with me today," Undyne said. "Better than lazing around all day being miserable over life like I can tell you were going to do." You glared at her. "Plus, you might learn a thing or two."

"What exactly do you do?" you asked, standing up and stretching, rolling out the kinks in your neck.

"I teach self defense!" Undyne said. "For both monsters and humans, though the class does tend to be more monster than human."

"Yeah well humans don't exactly like us," you muttered. Undyne punched you lightly on the shoulder.

"Don't be prejudiced," she said. "Why do you even hate them so much? What do you have against them?"

You sighed deeply. "I've been hunted down my whole life because I'm part human. It's not hard to start hating that aspect of yourself when it causes you so much trouble."

Undyne's expression softened. "Hey nerd, don't put yourself down like that. Even if it's given you trouble, it's still part of who you are."

You scoffed. "I wish it felt like it." Undyne just sighed.

"You probably wouldn't feel that way if you'd actually been raised by your mother," she said, and you froze.

"I…" you started, but couldn't think of anything to say to that.

"Or your dad for that matter, I mean surely he must've liked humans," Undyne said, smirking a bit. You blinked.

"Undyne do you know who my dad is?"

There was a moment of silence. "Damn punk, I'm sorry…I wasn't always around with you like Alphys was, I wasn't there when he visited you, and Alphys never really brought it up…"

"You thought I was dead," you said quietly. "Until I came here. Does he think that too?"

"Yeah…" Undyne said awkwardly. "After you ran away and didn't come back, we tried to look for you. But we couldn't find you…so we assumed some monster had gotten to you, and maybe you'd turned to dust. I assume Alphys told him all that…"

You closed your eyes, feeling tears well up. The only family you had, and he's been believing you were dead for years.

"Hey but we'll talk to Alphys about it," Undyne said gently. "And then we'll find him and fix this."

"Thank you," you said quietly, your voice wavering.

"Now, let's go do some training!" Undyne yelled enthusiastically, and you pushed the smile back onto your face.

Within the hour, you and Undyne left the house and made your way over to where she worked, after you changed into a clean set of clothes of course. It wasn't in the monster district, which confused you at first, but then you realized there mustn't be as much of a line between the two species as you thought. Walking through the human streets, you saw more monsters than you thought you would. Eventually you reached the place where Undyne worked, which was a nice little building with quite a few different large rooms inside, some with equipment.

"Hey Daniel!" Undyne yelled, and a human came running around to where she was, a man probably a few years older than you were. He looked kind, smiling brightly.

"Hey Undyne! Up top!" he said, and high fived Undyne. "Who's your friend?"

"Oh this is _______," Undyne said. "She's living with us for a while until she can get back on her feet." You didn't say anything, just watched the guy skeptically. "_______, this is Daniel, he owns the place."

"Nice to meet you," he said, holding out his hand. You stared at it for a moment and Undyne nudged you.

"Just shake the hand wimp," she said and you glared at her. You held your breath as you reached out and took Daniel's hand, shaking and letting go as soon as politely possible. You felt a bit of magic try to surface, but nothing that would've been dangerous. Daniel gave you a confused look before shrugging.

"Anyway, go teach your class Undyne, I'll show _______ around," he said, and Undyne nodded before charging off enthusiastically. "Man, where does she get her energy?"

"Dude I don't even know," you replied. "It's just…endless." Daniel chuckled.

"You got that right," he said. "She's one of the best fighters I've ever seen though, and I'm glad to have her work here."

"What exactly is this place for?" you asked.

"Self defense training," Daniel said. "For monsters and humans alike, although we get a lot of monsters in here seeing as some of the classes cater specifically towards them." He started walking, and you followed, going past rooms where different groups of people were doing different types of training. "I originally started up the place to teach monsters how to protect themselves against humans."

"That's…nice of you," you said.

"I noticed monsters fight differently from humans, and with the way they were being treated, it just didn't seem fair…anyway, Undyne works here, and occasionally we'll get a visit from that skeleton friend of hers too."

"Sans?" you asked.

"Yep, that's him," Daniel said. "He helps with the…well, I'm not really supposed to talk about it because it hasn't been passed with the government yet."

"Oh?" you said, glancing suspiciously at him.

"You're Undyne's friend though, so I trust you," Daniel said, stopping outside a room. You looked inside and saw Undyne teaching a class of young monsters with a few humans there too. She was enthusiastically demonstrating some sort of defensive attack. "Recently we've been having magic classes too, for the younger monsters. According to Undyne it wasn't much of a threat in the Underground, but since humans are a lot more stingy towards magic, we decided it'd be helpful to teach them a bit more control when they're young."

"And that's why she brought me here," you muttered under your breath.

"What was that?" Daniel asked.

"Nothing," you said, shaking your head. You looked back to Undyne. The class was now practicing what she'd showed them, and she ran over to the two of you. "Magic classes huh?"

"Yeah," Undyne said kind of sheepishly. "There's one right after this, you should stick around for it."

"You don't normally let humans in that class," Daniel said. "Like, I'm cool with it, but will she be safe?"

"Yeah of course!" Undyne said. Daniel nodded.

"Well I'll catch you later, work doesn't do itself," he said, giving the two of you a thumbs up before heading off.

"Well you caught me," Undyne said. "I figured it'd be helpful ya know?"

"Yeah I guess so," you said, putting your hands in your pockets. "I'll tag along."

"That's the spirit!" Undyne said. "Now just hang around until I finish up with this class." She ran back to the class, and you stayed near the entrance to the room, leaning on the wall as you watched the class.

"Didn't expect to see you here."

"Well, where Undyne goes, I get dragged along," you said, smiling at Sans who had appeared, leaning on the wall next to you. He had a lazy grin on his face, and actually looked quite happy to see you. "So are you sticking around for this supposed magic class?"

"Undyne told you about that, huh?" Sans said. "Yeah, I help out with that sometimes. Generally I just stop people from hurting themselves."

"Hey Sans!" Undyne yelled, running over. The class dissipated, most of them walking out of the door, save a few monsters who stuck around. "Take these kids to the room, I wanna talk to _______."

"Alright," Sans said, walking over to the young monsters and saying something to them that obviously excited them and got them to run out of the room. Sans took the easier route instead and just teleported out, the lazybones.

"You should try to participate," Undyne said.

"What? Not with Sans there," you said.

"You know it wouldn't be so bad if he found out," Undyne said.

"I…I'm just not ready for that yet," you muttered.

"And hey, WHO EVER SAID HE HAD TO KNOW IT WAS YOU?!" Undyne yelled, that glint appearing in her eyes. "Let's make a challenge, DON'T GET CAUGHT!"

"…fine," you said. "Challenge accepted." Undyne whooped, and started pulling you towards another room, where there was a group of young monsters and Sans waiting. Sans was leaning against the wall, his hands in his hoodie pockets and his eyes closed, as if he was sleeping. "Heya Sans."

"Undyne have anything interesting to say?" he asked, opening one eye.

"Nothing really," you said, leaning against the wall beside him and crossing your arms across your chest. If you used any magic the immediately sign would be the purple glow from your soul, so you'd just need to hide that. Luckily you had a jacket on which would block most of it, and you just needed to keep your arms crossed to finish it. That'd allow you to keep your hands hidden too, if there was any other purple glowing. Your eyes was another story though. "So now what?"

"Now Undyne attempts to teach them," Sans said, opening his other eye to watch the kids as Undyne started shouting instructions at them all. "Her method of teaching uses a lot of fighting."

"Yeah I never would've guessed," you said, watching Undyne show a small kid with no arms how she materialized her spears, or something like that. You let a small trail of fire curl around the spear for a second before vanishing, watching as Undyne looked over at you. You just smiled innocently at her. "So Sans, what work do you do?"

"I work at the lab, and a few other places," Sans said, shrugging nonchalantly. His eye flicked blue for a second and you saw out of the corner of your eye one of the kids have their magic snuffed out immediately.

"Impressive," you said, gesturing to the kid. Sans just shrugged, and the two of you fell into silence. Undyne was still talking about materializing magic in the form of objects, so you clenched your fists and let a purple fireball appear between Undyne and the few monsters she was talking to. Undyne froze in her speech, watching the fireball, while the kids all got excited.

Sans immediately stood to attention, eyes focused on the ball of fire. He made no move to get rid of it, and his attention wasn't on you and your purple eyes.

"IT APPEARS I HAVE BEEN CHALLENGED BY A SMALL FLAME," Undyne said, holding her spear pointing towards your flame. "This could be a good demonstration fight!" Hold on, was Undyne seriously giving you permission to fight her? Not even properly, but through a small fireball while you stood to the side pretending none of this happened…

"That magic isn't specific to any of those kids," Sans said, the lights in his eye sockets vanishing. Crap, you had to do something before Sans did something drastic.

You twisted your hand slightly, and the purple flame lowered to the ground. It changed shape until a little dog made of fire was sitting there, wagging its tail. Undyne looked very impressed.

"It seems the fire doesn't want to fight," Undyne said, and Sans relaxed a little beside you, but he was still tense. "See this is another way you could use magic kids, if you have some sort of element control like our little flame over here." You tilted your head and the dog mirrored your action, as well as holding its paw up to Undyne. "Chances are, you can probably even control magic like this not to hurt on touch," Undyne said, crouching and reaching to take the little dogs paw. You panicked, and shut off all your magic at once, the fire dog disappearing into air. Undyne looked disappointed, but shook it off easily.

"What just happened?" Sans whispered. "That must've come from someone in here…"

"I wouldn't worry too much about it," you said, and Sans looked over at you, not bothering to hide the suspicion in his expression. "I mean, they're all monsters here to learn some basic magic control right? Isn't that just part of it?"

Sans let a quiet moment pass before answering. "Yeah…I guess you're right." He looked back. "Welp. It's getting a bit _hot_ in here, I think I'll be going." He made a move like he was about to teleport, and you reached out on instinct.

"Wait!" you said, hand halfway outstretched. Sans looked at you, waiting for you to say something. But you had nothing. You just…didn't want him to go yet. His company was comforting. You brought your hand back, standing there slightly awkwardly. "Uh…tell Pappy I said hi?"

"Sure thing pal," Sans said, clearly confused. "I'll see you around."

"See ya bonehead," you said, smiling and winking at him. Sans disappeared a moment later, but you could've sworn a slight blue blush covered his cheeks before he did…it was cute.

"HEY NERD!" Undyne yelled, running over. You looked to see that the class was leaving the room now. "That was awesome! You need to do that again some time."

"Sans almost caught me," you pointed out. 

"I mean I had no idea you even had that much control," Undyne said, ignoring you. "What have you even been so worried about punk?"

"I'm not entirely incompetent you know," you said. "And just because I have some degree of control doesn't mean I can't still hurt people accidentally…"

"We'll work on that," Undyne said. "But now, we gotta go find Alphys, I feel like there's a family meeting to be had that's well overdue." You smiled brightly, if a little hesitantly. Alphys knew your dad, and you'd probably be able to find him easily after she told you…but there's no telling how this guy would react to you. Would he be happy, angry, maybe he'd just entirely reject you…You felt anxiety coil inside your stomach as you walked with Undyne back towards the house, back towards the first chance since you were a child of meeting your dad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aka, the reader has daddy issues that need to be sorted out xD I'm going to start trying to move along the relationship with Sans a little more in the next chapter though...I'm thinking now I should've planned out the order of events at some point, but oh well, too late now
> 
> *Hands out donuts*


	9. In Which There Is Flirtation And Revenge

"_______, you need to calm down," Undyne said. You were sitting on the couch beside her, your leg bouncing up and down as you held your hands clenched together. Not to mention the purple glow was just happening all over the place, from both your chest and your hands.

"I can't help it," you said. "When does Alphys get home?"

"Soon," Undyne said. "It's all going to work out, you know that right?"

"I know, it's just…" You sighed. Suddenly someone appeared in the room, a certain skeleton that you were becoming quite familiar with. You grabbed the closest pillow and hugged it against your chest, effectively hiding the glow. You absently noticed that it was the same pillow you'd accidentally set fire to the other day, it was a bit burnt around the edges.

"Heya," Sans said, looking at the way Undyne was death glaring him. "I'm getting glared at a lot these days."

"You have the worst timing," you said. "Maybe you should use the door sometime…"

"Nah," Sans said. "Are you feeling okay? You look rattled to the bone."

You snickered slightly at his pun, but your leg was still bouncing and the pillow was still clenched to your chest. "I'm nervous. And before you ask why, it's none of your business."

"Aw come on," Sans said, sitting down beside you. You tried to curl in on yourself more, highly conscious of the purple glow. Sans noticed this, and his playful expression softened. He reached out and put his bony hand softly on your shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. I won't ask. But you should try to calm down."

"Well you can try to do that until Alphys gets home," Undyne said, standing up. "I had no luck. Have fun losers." And she walked out of the room, leaving you with Sans. Honestly, she was probably still try to get the two of you together somehow.

"So uh…" Sans said. "Hey, what do you do if you see a skeleton running across the road?"

"Wonder who let Paps out," you replied. "I dunno, what do you do?"

"Jump out of your skin and join them," Sans said, winking. You snickered, your leg finally calming down. "You know," Sans said. "Skeletons are terrible liars. Everyone can just see straight through them." This time you giggled slightly at the stupid pun, and Sans just looked happier by the second.

"So, you find me pretty _humerus,_ then," Sans said. "Guess I tickled your funny bone." You put your hand over your mouth, trying to stifle the giggles as you looked at Sans who just looked mischievous now. "Well _tibia_ honest, I'm just that _sans_ ational, aren't I?" He winked and you just dissolved into uncontrollable giggles, dramatically curling up and falling over sideways. "You alright there? Am I getting too _pun_ bearable?"

"Oh my god stop," you said, trying to calm your laughter. You curled up on your side, covering your face with your hands as you continued laughing. This whole situation was just ridiculous, here you were being so nervous and Sans just comes in here with puns of all things.

You suddenly felt a hand in your hair, and you froze, looking up to notice two facts. One, Sans was watching you with a cautious expression with his hand placed gently in your hair, and two, when you'd fallen over sideways on the couch, you'd fallen into Sans lap, and you were now laying on him.

"Uh…is this okay?" Sans asked. You thought for a moment…he had no bad intentions, and to be honest you were comfortable here and the hand in your hair felt nice…

You nodded, before rolling back onto your side to face away from Sans, but moving to get more comfortable on top of his legs, stretching out along the couch. You didn't question how it was so comfortable despite him being a skeleton, and almost snuggled up against him. His hand started moving in your hair again as you closed your eyes, his movements almost tentative at first before settling into a consistent stroking movement. It was soft and calming, and you felt warm and safe there with Sans. In the comfort, you slowly let yourself drift off to sleep.

Meanwhile, Sans was blushing blue as he looked down at you asleep on his lap. You were adorable, and so peaceful when you slept. Whatever it was that worried you all the time was gone, and you just looked…happy. Sans continued stroking your hair softly, wondering how he ended up in this situation…your soul was practically humming in response to his touch.

Oh. Sans looked down at your chest, not in a pervert way, but at the steady purple glow that was pulsing in time with your heart beat. He'd thought he'd been going insane when he saw glimpses of purple before, but there was no mistaking this…that was your soul he could see, glowing brighter than any monster soul ever had. And it was beautiful…

Sans looked again at your peaceful face, and closed his eyes. Your soul was pure, purple for perseverance, and absolutely no traces of harmful intent…he could trust you. And besides, he couldn't exactly ignore the way your smile made him feel. He felt drawn to you, more so than he had to anyone in the past.

~~

You woke up to a warmth that wasn't coming from you like the magic often caused, but instead from something beside you. Well, _someone_ beside you. More specifically, lying next to you, on the couch, with one arm around your waist. Oh crap it was Sans wasn't it.

You didn't make any sudden movements, but carefully pulled Sans' arm off of you before rolling away from him and off the couch, ending up kneeling on the floor. You looked back at Sans, who didn't actually look too comfortable. He must've tried not to move too much in order to not wake you. His eye sockets were closed, somehow, and the ever present smile was still there, albeit more relaxed than usual. You smiled softly at him, grabbing the blanket you'd used the previous night and draping it over him. In his sleep he lazily grabbed it, pulling it closer to himself. Crap that was adorable.

You walked out of the room into the kitchen where Undyne was sitting at the counter. The moment you walked in, she looked up and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, glancing back to the room that Sans was in.

"No," you said simply, starting to look through her cupboards for breakfast. "Guess I fell asleep then. Did Alphys ever come back?"

"Yep," Undyne said. "But you two looked so peaceful so we didn't want to wake you."

You sighed. "But Undyne, I needed to talk to Alphys. Is she here now?"

"Nah, already left," Undyne said. You let out an exasperated sound. "She said she'd be back earlier though, and that we can go talk to your dad."

"Wait, she knows where he is too?" you asked, not even hiding the growing excitement within you.

"Yeah apparently he's hard to miss?" Undyne said. "I dunno, she was being vague. I think she wants to tell you before me."

"Tell you what?"

"Here you go again with the bad timing," you said, smiling at Sans who was standing in the doorway, looking sleepy. "Hey you sleepy bonehead."

"Mornin'," he said. "Uh, sorry for just crashing at your place Undyne."

"Nah it's fine," Undyne said, smirking. "You're welcome if you keep _______ company." You glared at her, before continuing your search for food.

"So what are you waiting for Alphys for?" Sans asked, and you just sighed, putting your hands on the counter and looking down.

"She knows a specific piece of information that I need," you said. "Please don't push it Sans."

"Okay pal," he said, sitting down at the counter beside Undyne. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to know anything about human souls would you?"

"I uh…not much?" you said, turning to face him as Undyne watched with a cautious look. "Why?"

"I was just wondering," Sans said, "if they glow."

"Well uh, I mean…" you stuttered. Sans was watching you carefully. Damn, you'd really hoped he'd stopped with the interrogations. But…this time was different. He didn't look harshly suspicious, but genuinely curious. You calmed down slightly at that realization. "Well, human souls are a lot more powerful than monster souls right? So technically they could glow…but humans don't have magic either, most don't even know anything about souls."

"Frisk's never did in the Underground," Sans said. "When they were fighting you could see their soul in their chest, but that's just how monsters fight. But it never actually glowed."

"Then what makes you think they do?" you asked.

Sans shrugged. "I thought I saw something, maybe it was a soul and maybe it wasn't."

"Where did you see it?" Undyne asked cautiously.

"Around," Sans said, shrugging again. "Anyway, doesn't matter. I ask Alphys later."

"You know a lot about souls, right Sans?" you asked. Undyne just gave you a warning glare but you ignored her. Sans nodded, and you walked over to the opposite side of the counter to face him, leaning on the counter with your elbows. "What do you think would happen if a monster and a human had a child?"

"Well uh…" Sans said. You realized that what you were saying could probably come across as flirtation from his point of view, and smirked slightly. "I mean, there's so many different ways that could turn out."

"What would the soul be like?" you asked, leaning in close to Sans. Undyne by this point was just glaring at the two of you, and stood up, storming out of the room. 

"It would, uh…" Sans trailed off. You didn't realize, but he was distracted by the mischievous spark in your eye, the curling of your lips on one side to create a smirk, and the fact that you were so, so close to him. You noticed a light blue blush spreading across the cheeks of his skull, and just smiled sweetly at him. "I think…they'd have a mix of determination and magic…in many situations that would end up being dangerous so there's always a chance that the child wouldn't survive…" He trailed off again, his eyes flicking down quickly before the blush only deepened. You smirked again before pushing away from the counter.

"Nice to know," you said, winking at him before walking out of the room, leaving a very flushed skeleton frozen in place. The moment you were out of the room you paused, wondering what in the world you had just done. You'd been trying to get actual answers, not flirt with the guy. Sure he was cute and all, and you were growing to like him—

"You know," Sans said slowly, in a deep, almost growling voice right next to your ear. He had teleported, and all of a sudden he was right behind you. As in, there was almost no space between the two of you. He was leaning his chin on your shoulder and had one hand on your hip, and all you could do was stand there frozen. "It's not very nice to just leave a guy like that…"

"Oh really?" you said breathlessly. 

"Some might think you're asking for something," Sans said, in the same low voice and oh god did he realize that what he was doing was hot? "I'll see you later _______." And then he was gone, the space behind you sudden way too empty. Damn that jerk.

You took a moment to catch your breath, now just really confused about what had happened. He'd just…what had he meant by that? Was he just trying to get revenge because of what you did? Probably, that did seem like the most likely explanation. But his voice, the way he'd spoken…that was doing weird things to you that you didn't want to think too much about.

"HEY PUNK!" Undyne yelled, running into the room to see you still frozen in shock. "Woah what's up with you?"

"I uh…I don't…" Oh Sans had taken your ability to speak, how great. Undyne just laughed loudly.

"Oh you two are perfect for each other," she said, walking out of the room. "Oh by the way, Alphys is on her way home now!"

You took a deep breath, calming your thoughts and then focusing on the original problem at hand. No more skeleton to distract you, no more running from your family, it was time to find out who your dad was. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be honest, I really did plan to have the father reveal in this chapter, and to only have Sans show up shortly, buuut I got carried away xD And the conversation between Sans and our reader was supposed to be innocent, but again, I got carried away xD Well, it was definitely fun to write at least. Also, thank you internet for providing me with a page entirely dedicated to skeleton puns that Sans would make xD
> 
> *hands out some Oreos*


	10. In Which There Is A Family Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SHOUT OUT TO MY FRIEND WHO HELPED EDIT THIS <3
> 
> And let's be honest, you all saw this coming xD

As Alphys walked through the door of the house, you resisted the urge to jump up and interrogate her about everything on your mind. Instead you stayed on the couch, looking down at the home screen of your phone, trying to make it look like you were doing something. You'd been trying to distract yourself with it, but it wasn't helping much. You had also realized you didn't actually have Sans’ phone number, when you tried to text him to help calm yourself down.

" _________ ," Alphys said, walking into the room with Undyne behind her. "I-I'm sorry, I r-really thought y-you remembered."

"Oh…," you said. "Well, misunderstandings are always great." There was a moment of silence following your overwhelming sense of sarcasm where Alphys stood there nervously, leaving you waiting anxiously. Undyne sighed at the two of you, sitting down beside you with a huff.

"So, who is it?" she asked, yellow eyes darting between you and Alphys. 

"O-oh, it's um…" Alphys stuttered, trying to find the words. "Y-you probably k-know him, he o-owns a p-popular place…"

"The name, Alphys," Undyne said gently.

"He's a f-fire elemental, G-Grillby…"

Oh. You'd talked to him. On more than one occasion. "Grillby is…my dad?" you tested quietly. Alphys nodded with jerky movements.

"I-I have s-some things to sh-show you too," she gushed out, hurrying out of the room to, supposedly, grab something. You sat there, looking down at your hands. Grillby…it made perfect sense now that you thought of it, the whole fire issue, his reaction to your story…although he had lied a little, but it mustn't be easy to admit that type of thing. But…you'd talked to him. You'd talked to him and neither of you had any idea that you were related. He thought you were just another human, and he thought his daughter was dead…but…if only you'd known dammit, you could have said something!

"You okay there?" Undyne whispered softly, an odd layer of care taking over her gruff voice as she watched your reaction. You looked up at her with a tiny curve of a smile to reassure her.

"I have a father Undyne," you whispered. You didn't trust yourself to speak loudly, your voice was already wavering as it was. "I've met him, I know him, I could go talk to him right now if I wanted to…" You were shaking slightly as you rushed your words, rubbing your hands together subconsciously to prevent your magic taking over. “I…I mean he thinks I'm dead…what if he doesn't believe it's me? What if he rejects me? I mean, he didn't seem too happy about keeping me when I was a kid, why would it be any differ—"

"Stop it," Undyne snapped softly, grabbing your arm to stop you. You looked at her with wide eyes as she offered a kind smile. "Grillby's a good guy, he must have had a good reason back then. And don't think so negatively, it'll turn out well."

"Easy for you to say…" you muttered dejectedly. On cue, Alphys walked back into the room, carrying a dusty old box in her shaking hands.

"T-these are a f-few things from w-when you were y-younger," Alphys explained in a voice as shaky as you were, opening the box it what seemed to be slow-motion. You had to sit on your hands to stop from ripping it away from her. She pulled out a folded photograph and passed it to you. Your hands were shaking so much you almost couldn't see the image clearly, but Alphys offered you a tiny smile and Undyne’s soft grip on your arm steadied you. You took a deep breath before looking down and studying the image, soaking in every minute detail you could. It was…Grillby, kneeling on the ground with his arms around a young human girl who couldn't have been more than 8 years old. The girl was clinging to him, and he was looking at her with a look of adoration. Grillby looked so much more alive here than when you’d seen him more recently, his flames themselves looking brighter. And the girl…that was you. 

"That's the m-most recent p-photo," Alphys explained softly, and you almost didn't hear her, lost so deep in the past you wanted to remember. Everything looked so happy then. "T-there's more." The promise of more photos made you tear your eyes away from the one you still held as Alphys passed you the box. You pulled out the small stack of photos it held and the wave of nostalgia you were feeling became overpowering.

"Hey I remember when you were this small," Undyne said with a hint of a chuckle to her voice, taking the first photo from you. “God you were a pain to look after back then."

"Hey," you mock-pouted, punching her lightly on the shoulder before looking back to the photos as Undyne laughed. They were all of you. Sometimes you were with Alphys, sometimes you were alone. The ones with Grillby were less common, but in each one he just looked so happy to see you. Going through the photos, you realized that in each one you got younger. Eventually you reached the last and oldest of the lot…probably the youngest you’d been in any of the photos. The image was of Grillby cradling a baby wrapped in a soft looking blanket. He looked…sad. You found yourself carefully tracing the both of you with your finger, lost in the memories you didn't have.

"Th-that was th-the day he b-brought you to m-me," Alphys explained with the same soft voice you had all adopted in the heavy atmosphere. "H-he didn't w-want to leave you…"

"Then why did he?" you whispered, your grip on the photo tightening as painful tears threatened to spill.

"W-why don't y-you ask him?" Alphys suggested. "He k-knows the answer b-better than anyone e-else." You paused, taking a deep, shaky breath to steady yourself.

"Okay…" you said quietly and Alphys and Undyne looked at you in surprise. “Okay.” You repeated with a shrug. “Let's go to Grillby's then, he's always there isn't he?"

"Pretty much," Undyne said, standing up. "Alright, LET'S GO MAKE A FAMILY REUNION!" You and Alphys both smiled at Undyne's enthusiasm, and you stood up as well. "But seriously punk, can ya change? You're going to meet your FATHER for the first time in how long? I'm sorry, but pyjamas just don't cut it.”

"Wha—" You looked down at yourself. She was right. You pouted before going over to your duffle bag which now had a home in the corner of the living room. The whole room was pretty much yours now. You dug around in your quest for more appropriate clothes while Undyne and Alphys started talking about random things like the cute couple they were. Probably anime. Definitely anime.

You finally picked out something nice and went to get some privacy to change. The outfit wasn't anything too fancy, but you wanted to make some sort of good impression. Skinny jeans, one of your nicer shirts, and a denim jacket. No way you could go wrong with that. It would do a better job than your pyjamas, that's for sure. You decided to just do a quick brush through with your hair, rather than anything special.

"Better," Undyne said as you walked out of the bathroom, giving you a quick once over. "NOW LET'S GO!" she screamed like an overactive anime protagonist and stormed out the front door. You and Alphys trailed behind, walking at a normal pace, like normal people. Which you technically weren't but oh well.

When you got to Grillby's, there weren’t many people in there, and Grillby was standing behind the counter as usual, excessively cleaning an already spotless glass. You froze in the doorway, shuffling your feet nervously.

"Come on punk," Undyne whispered softly, putting her hand on your shoulder to guide you over to one of the booths. "Let Alphys talk to him first." Her gruff voice was becoming a large comfort, but you couldn't help the absent thought that crossed your mind, of Sans. His light hearted attitude and bad puns could calm you in an instant.

"Okay," you said quietly, sitting down and watching as Alphys walked over to talk to Grillby. Grillby, who was your dad, who was in the same room as you, who was Right. There. He greeted the nervous monster as he would any customer, and Alphys started visibly stumbling over her words. You couldn't hear what they were saying, and your elite lip reading skills couldn't really help because: 

1: They didn't exist.

2: Grillby didn't have a mouth to speak with, and Alphys was turned away from you. But you assumed Alphys had said something about you, because Grillby suddenly turned serious. You started bouncing your leg nervously, rapping your fingers furiously on the tabletop.

"Calm down," Undyne said, drawing your attention from the conversation. "It's going to be okay."

A sudden crash drew your attention back, and you looked over to see that Grillby had dropped the glass he was cleaning and the crystalline shards scattered everywhere. Grillby didn't seem to care, he was staring right at you. And you stared right back.

There was a moment where no one moved, and then Alphys whispered something you couldn't hear to Grillby. He tore his gaze from you and nodded at her before he turned and walked to the door leading towards the back room of the bar. Alphys gestured for you and Undyne to stand up and follow, and the three of you followed Grillby into the other room.

There, Grillby stood facing you, as Undyne and Alphys stood back a bit to observe, Undyne only interfering enough to nudging you forward.

"Is it true?" Grillby said eventually, breaking the spell of silence. "Are you really my daughter?"

"Yes," you said quietly, fidgeting nervously. He paused for another long moment.

"Forgive me, but I've believed you were dead for so many years…proof would be helpful."

How were you supposed to prove something like that? You felt your magic start to spike up with your nervousness, and your mind lit up with an idea. You held your hand out, letting a purple fireball appear in it.

"I believe I got this from you," you said quietly, before snuffing out the fire. Grillby didn't say anything, just stared at you, as if still unsure. So you did the only thing that you knew couldn't lie. You put your hand to your chest and drew out your soul, purple with the swirling white of a monster, letting the small heart float in your hand. If there was any way he'd be able to recognize you, this would be it. 

Grillby looked at your soul for a moment, before stepping forward and putting his fiery hands under yours, so that the soul was practically floating in his hands. Then he gently moved your hand to guide your soul back into your chest. A second later, warmth enveloped you and it took you a second to realize that Grillby had pulled you into a tight hug. You reciprocated, wrapping your arms tightly around your dad. What also crossed your mind was how you weren't burning despite the fact that he was literally made of fire, but that wasn't important right now.

"I thought you were dead," he whispered, not letting go.

"But I'm not," you said, and your voice began to get choked up as tears welled up in your eyes. "And I never should've run away."

"I never should have given you up," Grillby admitted, before pulling back, keeping his hands on your shoulders as he looked at you. "You…you look like your mother…"

"Well I'm not sure how it would work if I looked like you too," you said. "You're sorta on fire."

Grillby chuckled. "Well really, I'm not _on_ fire, I'm made _of_ fire."

"Yet you're not burning me," you said, glancing at his hands on your shoulders.

"It's fire composed of magic," Grillby said. "It doesn't have to burn. Do you not have the same?" You shook your head, avoiding looking Grillby in the eyes as you remembered how many people you'd accidentally burnt. Grillby looked confused and thoughtful then, and Undyne chose that moment to interrupt.

"Well that was adorable," she said. "But Grillby, your bar is unoccupied…" Grillby glanced over to the door and back to you.

"I can just hang around while you work," you said, smiling brightly, and you caught the look of relief that crossed Grillby's expression, before he nodded. The four of you made your way back into the front of the building, where luckily no customers had decided to wreak havoc.

"Hey we'll catch you later punk," Undyne said, preparing to leave with Alphys.

"Doctor Alphys," Grillby called as they were turning to leave. "Thank you."

"Y-you're welcome," Alphys said, flustered. "I-I mean, it's t-the least I o-owed you after losing h-her like that."

"You didn't lose me Alphys, I ran away," you reassured softly. "It's not your fault okay?" Alphys didn't answer, and Undyne put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"See ya later nerd," Undyne said, leading Alphys out of the bar. Grillby went went to take his usual place behind the counter, and you followed him, sitting on the counter and swinging your legs. Grillby narrowed his eyes as he caught you doing so.

"You shouldn't sit on the counter," he said. "But I'll let it slide this time." You smiled at him. There was a moment of awkward silence, neither of you really knowing what to say to the other. "So…there are so many things I want to ask you."

"I could say the same to you," you replied. "I don't even remember much from when I was with Alphys…"

"Why did you run away?" Grillby blurted, before quickly regaining his composure. "I've asked myself that question for years and tried to find some explanation. I thought that maybe you weren't happy…"

"No no that's not why…" you said hastily. "I…I hurt Undyne, while she was training me. It was the first time anything like that had happened, and I just sort of freaked out…I was scared that something like that might happen again, and that it'd be worse…"

"So that's why she started wearing the eyepatch then."

"What?" You looked at Grillby with wide eyes, a feeling of dread sending a wave of nausea through you.

"She started wearing it right after you ran away," Grillby quietly explained. "You didn't know?"

"I…no…I was freaking out, I don't remember it well, I never thought it was anything permanent oh god what did I do to her…"

"Hey," Grillby said gently, putting his hand comfortingly on your upper arm. "It's not your fault, and Undyne certainly isn't holding any grudge against you." You didn't say anything, but the warmth from the physical contact was calming.

"Well that's not what I was expecting to see when I came in here…"

Both you and Grillby looked over to see Sans standing there, staring at the two of you. Grillby moved away from you, going back to doing his job.

"Hello Sans," he said. Sans was staring at you with an expression you couldn't place. He looked…annoyed? Sad? If you didn't know better you might say he was a little jealous.

"Heya Grillbz, _________ ," Sans said, taking a seat opposite from where you were sitting on the counter. "So _________ , did ya sort out whatever you had going with Alphys?"

"Yeah," you said, smiling. "Guess I was just super nervous for no reason…"

"You were nervous?" Grillby asked. "You weren't worried that I'd—"

"Um, well," you said loudly, cutting Grillby off. Sans still didn't know, and you didn't want him to just find out so suddenly like this. Grillby glanced between you and Sans and gave a minute nod, while Sans was watching the two of you with suspicion. "Anyway, it's all fine now Sans."

"Sure pal," he said, and his voice had the same edge to it that it'd had when you first met. You flinched a bit, but Sans didn't seem to notice. "So what's with the social visit to Grillby here?"

"What, I need a reason to visit friends?" you said, trying to force a smile, but you knew Sans could see right through you. Dammit, and the two of you were finally becoming friends. The way he was looking at you, it was making your magic flare up in defense. You placed your hands on the counter, gripping it tightly.

"Sans, leave her alone," Grillby said, passing him a bottle of ketchup.

"Is this bribery?" Sans asked, looking at the bottle before shrugging and taking a chug out of it anyway. You were staring pointedly at the floor now, trying to calm your magic down, but it was likely you'd probably burnt the counter. Although if you moved, Sans would see the burn marks, and that would only make him more suspicious. Grillby seemed to notice your stress, but looked clueless about how to help with Sans right there. Sans glanced between the two of you, before standing up. "I can see I'm not wanted here. Good to see you still don't trust me at all _________." And then he vanished, and you flinched, looking at the space where he had been as you felt a sharp spike of hurt in your chest.

"Is there…something between you two?" Grillby asked.

"No, we're just friends," you said quietly…just...friends. Or at least you thought you were.

"You should tell him then," Grillby said. "I've known Sans since he came to Snowdin. He doesn't like secrets."

"Yeah well," you muttered, moving your hands to reveal the burn marks on the counter. "I'm a little cautious." Grillby looked between the marks and your hands.

"That…may be a problem," he said. "But…I can teach you. If you want."

"Yeah," you breathed, smiling shyly at Grillby. "I'd like that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup. I chose the most obvious choice for her dad xD Also, in getting my friend to edit this, I realized I should probably go back and edit the rest, because I never actually edit the chapters before I post them...I am now very aware of the fact that I use the word 'said' too much xD Anyway, I'll do that, it won't change any of the storyline but hopefully I'll be able to put in more emotion and description :P
> 
> *gives everyone some ice-cream*


	11. In Which Sans Is Suspicious. Again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo some of you may have seen the premature post of this chapter a few days ago, for which I'm sorry, it wasn't finished yet xD Oops...anyway, it's here now :P

You stayed at Grillby's until close, giving you both a few good hours to chat. The two of you made easy small talk, asking random facts about each other or what you'd been doing for the last however many years since you ran away. You'd learnt that Grillby hadn't seen you for a full year when he got the call from Alphys saying that you'd disappeared, which made sense as to why you remembered Undyne more than you remembered him.

The atmosphere between the two of you was still a little tense and awkward, but with each passing moment that feeling alleviated and you got a little more comfortable.

"Do you…have a home somewhere?" Grillby asked as he started closing up the bar.

"Yeah," you replied automatically. "Well, no. Uh, I did…but I'm just staying with Alphys and Undyne right now."

"Oh…" Grillby trailed off. "I'd offer to let you stay with me, but there'd be more room for you at their house." You smiled softly at him, at his concern and consideration for you. It was a good feeling.

"Well hey, I'll come visit you," you said brightly, smiling at the idea. "As often as you want me to." Grillby smiled, despite the fact that he didn't have a mouth. It was more of a smile of the eyes, crinkling up at the edges, and his flames brightening to a warmer glow. "But I should probably head back now so Undyne doesn't tear apart the city looking for me," you spoke with a laugh in your voice, standing up.

Grillby nodded. "Of course," he agreed, subtly rubbing his hands together. Huh, it was same nervous habit you had, that was actually pretty cute. He kind of looked like he wanted to hug you, but there was still that awkwardness between the two of you. You considered this for a moment, before thinking to hell with it, and stepped forward, wrapping your arms around him. He was surprised for a moment before returning the hug, holding you tightly as if he was afraid that you would disappear if he let you go again.

"Well, I'll be going then," you said as the two of you separated, walking backwards towards the door. "See you later Dad." You smiled as you saw him freeze, his flames brightening in both his version of a blush and in happiness. Then you walked out of the building, the smile still present on your face as you headed back to the house.

It was after midnight, and you shivered slightly in the chilly breeze. You did your usual habit of running your hands over your arms (with the added bonus of fire magic) to warm yourself up. Your thoughts drifted to the last time you had been walking through the night like this, when Sans had teleported you home…

You frowned, looking down as you walked. Sans…he'd been acting weird when he saw you with Grillby. Looking back on it, the situation probably could've been interpreted as a different type of relationship between you and Grillby, but that was no reason for Sans to get so grumpy. And the way he'd looked at you, that was an expression of mistrust, of annoyance…and that hurt you more than you thought it would.

You sighed, trying to clear your mind of thoughts as you made the rest of the journey back to Undyne and Alphys's house.

~~

"Get your lazy ass up or I swear to Asgore…"

You groaned, trying the muffle Undyne's somewhat quieter than usual voice with the pillow.

"I WILL MAKE YOU REGRET THE DAY YOU DECIDED TO SLEEP ON THIS COUCH."

"For the love of god Undyne please shut up," you murmured, grabbing the pillow and stuffing it over your face.

"NOT UNTIL YOU GET UP!"

"Undyne I will burn you. Let me sleep."

"Punk, even if you had magic you couldn't hurt me." Through your sleepy haze, you realized that what Undyne was saying wasn't right, because you did have magic…and her voice was tense, guarded… You lifted the pillow to give her a bemused glance. That's when you noticed Sans was in the room too. And you'd just said something about your magic, that wasn't good…

"Hey pal," Sans greeted, his voice lacking the lightheartedness it held when the two of you had been on good terms. "Paps wanted to come by. He's in the kitchen now."

"I'm going to go check on him!" Undyne declared before rushing out of the room. You just sighed, dropping the pillow on your face again.

"Late night?" Sans asked, and you just flipped him off. It definitely sounded like he was implying something, and you didn't want to deal with his double meaning questions right now. You heard Sans chuckle slightly, before the pillow was pulled away from you by some blue glowing force. You whined and grabbed for it as it went out of your reach, floating above you.

"Fine, fine, I'll get up," you muttered, pulling yourself into a sitting position on the couch. You stretched out, stiff from another night spent on the couch, feeling several of your bones crack as you did. The pillow that was floating above you suddenly landed on your head, and you glared over at the skeleton who just now looked thoroughly uncomfortable.

"Uh…could you…not…do that?" he stammered, a slight blue blush on his cheeks. You gave him a confused look, before realizing that Sans was a skeleton and you'd just…you smirked at him.

"And why not?" you teased, standing up and taking a step closer to Sans. The blue blush only deepened, which honestly was adorable, and he was avoiding looking directly at you. You let your smirk soften into a smile for half a second before turning away and walking over to your bag, to search for some clean clothes to wear. You heard your phone go off, still laying on the table near the couch, and paid no attention to it, not noticing as Sans walked over to it.

"Your dad's texting you," Sans said. You spun around with wide eyes, your heart skipping a beat as you thought he'd figured it out for a second. Then you remembered that you'd saved Grillby's number under the name Dad…the term was so foreign to you, but you wanted to get used to it, you wanted to have a family.

"Yeah I'll check it later," you said, turning back to your search for clothes and calming down your panic. Sans watched you was a confused expression, probably wondering why you had such a strange reaction. And then, he remembered a very specific detail that you had told him not long ago…

You walked out of the room to the bathroom to change into the new clothes, walking back to throw your pyjamas on top of your bag which was just where they'd been living. An actual room really would've been helpful, but unfortunately you didn't have that luxury. You picked up your phone, opening the text from Grillby.

 

**9:32am, Dad**

Hello, just wanted to make sure you got home alright last night. It can be dangerous at night.

 

You smiled softly at his concern. He'd probably refrained from saying that right after you left, what with how nervous he'd been about being too overbearing.

 

**9:50am, You**

Yep, got back fine. Just woke up, and the skelebros are here too.

 

"So." Sans was still standing in the room. "Your dad, huh?"

"Uh, yeah?" you said, pocketing your phone. Sans narrowed his eyes, almost glaring at you.

"So then which part was the lie?"

"What?" you asked, confused. Then you remembered when you'd gone to Grillby's with Sans, you'd told him about your family briefly, that you didn't remember your father… "Oh right…um…well I never lied to you?"

"You don't sound too sure," Sans growled, the lights in his eyes darkening slightly.

"Sans," you said softly. "I was telling the truth…I didn't remember my dad. But…" You made an exasperated sound in the back of your throat. There was no way to say this easily, and you still didn't feel ready. This was new to you, you needed time to get used to it before you dragged Sans into it too. "I found him, okay? I very recently found him…"

Sans's expression softened immediately into an apologetic one. "Oh…uh, sorry for jumping to conclusions there…"

"No it's okay," you murmured, shuffling your feet. "I know I'm not the best at being open with this sort of stuff, and I know that's making things really confusing for you…so I'm sorry."

Sans sighed, closing his eyes. "We're just great at getting along, aren't we?"

You smiled weakly. "Yeah…well, at least we're better off now than we were at the start."

Sans chuckled softly. "Yeah, glad we got over that whole species difference." He paused. "I wanted to apologize about that…I was just using the fact that you were human as an excuse not to like you."

You blinked before smiling shyly at him. "Then thank you…for getting past that."

"But if you hurt Paps again…" Sans said, the lights vanishing from his eyes. You held up your hands defensively.

"Okay okay I get it, no need to threaten me, I am fully aware of what you could do to me if you wanted," you gushed. The lights appeared again in Sans's eyes, and he smirked slightly.

"Oh really?" he teased, using the same tone you had used before, which only meant… "You really know what I could do to you?" It would've still sounded threatening if not for the flirty tone, which immediately sent you into a blushing and spluttering mess.

So you did the only logical thing you could think of, and turned on your heel and ran from the room. You burst into the kitchen, smashing into Undyne who was standing there with Papyrus and Alphys.

"Woah there punk," Undyne said, steadying you with a concerned expression. "Are you okay?"

"Yep completely utterly entirely fine," you practically yelped. She gave you an unconvinced look and you tried to just shrug it off, regaining your composure and trying to will away the dark blush on your cheeks. Sans walked into the room nonchalantly, his hands stuffed in his hoodie pockets. He looked very pleased with himself, and you just glared at him. Undyne muttered something under her breath as she looked between the two of you, and you glared at her too.

"S-so," Alphys said, breaking the strange silence that had enveloped the room. "I'm g-going to head t-to the lab now…"

"I'll go too," Sans agreed. "I was finally getting somewhere on that human soul work—"

"Human soul?" you asked. He looked over at you curiously. "Uh…what specifically are you working on?"

"Trying to figure out the compatibility of a human soul and magic," Sans said. "It's…difficult. And really needs a skele-ton of work." He winked at you and you scoffed at his bad pun. It was so bad that you almost disregarded what he had said beforehand.

"Well then I'll see you guys later," you said. "I'm going to go…out." Wow, way to sound suspicious. "Gonna go visit Dad."

"YOU HAVE A FATHER?" Papyrus exclaimed. "YOU WILL HAVE TO INTRODUCE US SOMETIME!"

Undyne couldn't help it, she burst out into laughter, hunching over as she wrapped her arms around her stomach. You glared at her, trying to push back the urge to scoff at the irony of what Papyrus had just said. Oh if only they knew…

"Um…" Sans said, clearly confused. Alphys meanwhile looked panicked, and mumbled an excuse before scurrying out of the room.

"Someday Pappy, someday," you smiled at Papyrus who was still innocently clueless to what was going on. "Anyway, I'm heading out now, see you all later."

"Yeah…see ya," Sans said slowly, still very confused.

"Don't stay out too late punk!" Undyne yelled, finally having calmed down her laughter. You smiled at them all before leaving the house, walking off towards Grillby's bar.

It was nice, the warm feeling in your chest right now. Having friends, weird as they may be and despite the secrets you still didn't tell them, it made you happier than you had been in pretty much forever. And as you walked into the bar, seeing Grillby behind the counter as usual, and seeing him literally light up as he saw you, you couldn't help but wonder what you'd been afraid of all these years. You'd been missing out on so much…but not any longer. You wouldn't let the fear of your magic control you anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Their flirting is fun to write :P And there is a line of foreshadowing at some point within this chapter :P Oh and the reason this is late is because I went back and have been editing the earlier chapters, sorry about that guys
> 
> *Hands out some cookies for all you awesome people*


	12. In Which Sans Isn't An Idiot

"That is…probably not good…"

"You don't say," you muttered, looking at the burn mark you'd just left on Grillby's counter. You were in his bar again, because Grillby was pretty much always working, but it was relatively quiet with only one customer actually being in there. And they were drunk and not paying attention, so you felt fine using your magic.

"You need to lower the temperature of the fire," Grillby said, leaning on the counter with his elbows as he watched you try to control the purple flame from where you were sitting on the counter.

"But how?" you whined, letting the purple fire dissipate.

"If you believe that it will hurt someone," Grillby said, placing a hand down on the counter. "Then it will." He removed his hand to show a burnt hand print, yet placed his hand down again with no damage done to the counter.

"I think you're going to need a new counter," you muttered and Grillby chuckled. You let a fireball appear in your hand again and stared at it…you'd gone through your entire life with the sole belief that your magic burnt people, it had never even crossed your mind that it didn't have to…

"Here," Grillby said, putting his hand under the fireball and guiding it closer to him. "You can't burn fire," he reassured as you gave him a worried glance. "But I can still feel the heat. Fix that."

"Easier said than done," you muttered.

"You already believe that you can't do it," Grillby said. "Why do you think you keep failing?" His voice softened. "It's difficult…but I know you can do it ______." You smiled softly at him and turned your attention back to the flame.

All you had to do was imagine…no, you had to _know,_ that it wouldn't hurt him. Well it wouldn't either way, but the point still stands. You got a hold of the magic holding the fireball together, and calmed it, taking away the attacking edge that it had. Visibly, there was no change, but Grillby lit up in a proud smile.

"Did it work?" you asked and he nodded. You tilted your head and moved the fireball onto the counter, surprised to see no burn marks appear beneath it. You let it disappear, blinking slowly at where it had been before looking back to Grillby, who was watching you with a proud expression. "It…worked…" You broke out into a smile and jumped off the counter excitedly, pulling your dad into a hug. He returned it, with considerably less awkwardness than the two of you had the day before. You pulled away, still smiling brightly at him. "Thank you."

"All you needed was a bit of belief in yourself," he said, smiling as you bounced a bit on your feet happily. You made another fireball in your hands, melding into the shape of a small puppy, and made care to keep the fire clam as you let it go onto the counter, the little fire puppy running back and forth without the slightest bit of damage. Grillby watched, looking impressed as he took in the easy way you'd created a shape from the fire.

He folded his arms, and you were surprised to see another shape appear next to your puppy, a little kitten made of red fire, contrary to your purple flames. You glanced over at Grillby to see him watching the two fire animals with a soft smile, but with a layer of concentration. You smiled and turned back to the animals, controlling your dog as it played with Grillby's kitten.

"Your mother loved when I made shapes out of the fire," Grillby whispered eventually, and the two animals stilled as you looked over to see his expression heavy with emotion. He looked sad, mournful.

"What was she like?" you asked, your voice soft as you turned to face him.

"Well she was kind," Grillby said, lighting up in a smile slightly as he became lost in the memories. "She'd never hurt anyone, even the monsters that tried to attack her. And she wanted to help anyone who ever needed it. She never thought we were abominations like many humans seem to, and never once was scared. And she looked a lot like you…" He paused, pulling out his phone. He pulled up a photo and passed it to you. Well, technically it was a photo of a printed photograph, he probably kept the original at his house. It was of him and a woman…and he was right, she really did look like you. Same eyes, same hair. The photo had the two of them smiling goofily at the camera, taken on what looked like a couch as Grillby sat on it and the woman leaned over the back, her arms around Grillby's neck. They looked so happy, Grillby's expression lacking the feeling of loss that it currently held.

"She's beautiful," you whispered, tracing your fingers over your mother. A mother you'd never know… Grillby smiled sadly at you, taking the phone back. "How'd you meet?"

Grillby chuckled softly. "She got dragged into my bar in Snowdin one day, by Papyrus actually." Your eyes widened at the mention of the loveable skeleton. "He hadn't figured out she was a human. And she was looked around at everyone with such an awestruck expression, and when she saw me she looked…confused. At another point that day, I remember she poked me and asked how in the world I was staying together, and then added that I was too hot to not be burning anything…"

You laughed at that. "Did she realize that it sounded like a flirtation?"

Grillby chuckled and nodded. "A moment later she was stammering out an apology and blushing…it was quite adorable." You smiled at the fond expression he held.

"I wish I could've met her," you said quietly.

"I wish so too," Grillby lamented. "But…she wouldn't want us to continue to mourn over her. Especially not now that we're together again." He smiled at you, still sad, but happy too. You smiled back and leaned against him, letting him put one arm around you.

The door of the bar suddenly slammed open, and Undyne barged in. "HEY PUNK!"

"Hey Undyne," you laughed, noticing that she'd brought a few friends. Alphys and Papyrus followed her in, and then of course Sans. Sans's gaze immediately landed on you and then shifted to Grillby. He looked confused, and the same expression he'd worn the day before was threatening to return. But it had only been earlier that day that you mentioned you were going to see your dad…maybe he'd start figuring it out now.

Grillby nudged you forward slightly, and you smiled at him before jumping over the counter to join your friends at the booth they had all moved to. Glancing at your phone you noticed that it had gotten pretty late, it was around dinner time now, and more customers were beginning to pile into the bar.

"So what trouble did you guys get up to today?" you asked, sitting down in the only available spot beside Sans.

"WE MADE SPAGHETTI!" Papyrus yelled triumphantly.

"They blew up the kitchen," Sans corrected, and you scoffed.

"We did NOT," Undyne replied.

"Y-you kind of did…" Alphys said and Undyne gave her a betrayed look, placing a hand over her heart for dramatic effect. Well, where her heart would be if monsters had hearts like humans did…which…you weren't actually that sure about.

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time," you said, and Undyne turned her betrayed look on you.

"It's called COOKING!" she said and you just laughed, the others joining in as Undyne rolled her eyes affectionately. 

"But hey," you said, turning to Sans. "You and Alphys went to the lab today right? Have any breakthroughs?" Alphys gave you what could've been taken as a warning look, but she was too timid to make the meaning actually get through. You knew asking Sans about this was probably playing with fire, but you were curious.

"Nothing really," Sans said, leaning back and putting an arm up lazily on the back of the chair in the counter. If you leaned back he'd probably have his arm around your shoulders. That was a thought you allowed yourself to entertain for a moment before Sans started speaking again. "What we really need is an actual person who is the child of a human and monster…"

"Well monsters only came to the surface recently," you pointed out. "Anyone you could find, they'd only be babies."

"You'd think so," Sans said, his voice lowering. He glanced across the table, at where Undyne, Papyrus and Alphys were all talking about movies now. "Tibia honest…" You ignored the pun. "I saw something once. Results on Alphys's lab equipment. It was precisely what I'm looking for and yet she won't acknowledge its existence."

"What do you mean?" you asked, a nauseous feeling settling in your gut as you realized it could only be you that he was talking about.

"She scanned a soul once," he said. "A hybrid. The evidence was there and yet…" He trailed off and then sighed. "Didn't mean to make the mood so serious pal."

"No it's fine, it's kind of interesting actually," you said, managing to keep the waver out of your voice. Sans just shrugged, looking at you carefully with those pin prick lights of eyes of his. You gave him a smile before turning to Undyne and Papyrus's debate over Disney movies, not seeing the light blush that covered his cheekbones after your smile.

You joined in the conversation, and Sans offered some input too. It was in the back of your mind that he did still have his arm on the seat behind you, so that if you stopped leaning on the table and sat back…you started considering it after a while.

Eventually Grillby came over with food and drinks for the five of you, despite none of you having ordered anything.

"What's the occasion Grillbz?" Sans asked, eyeing the food. "Not that I'm complaining but…"

Grillby shrugged, glancing at you briefly. "I'm…in a charitable mood." He walked off to serve the ever present customers, but a small kitten made of fire appeared on the table, sitting in front of you. You chuckled and scratched behind the ear of the small kitten as Undyne and Alphys watched with cautious expressions, looking over at the skelebros who were very confused.

"I'm not usually one to pry but…" Sans started but broke off as you scoffed.

"Sure you aren't, bonehead," you joked, throwing a teasing smile his way to show that you weren't being serious.

"Throw me a bone here babe, it's not my fault you're always suspicious," Sans replied, getting a slightly mischievous glint to his gaze. 

Wait, hold up a moment, what did he just call you? Oh, two could play at this game…

"Well, _babe_ ," you teased, leaning back not only so that Sans now had his arm around your shoulders, but also leaning against Sans so you were pressed against him, your faces only inches apart. "What fun is a girl without a little bit of mystery?" You smirked as Sans started blushing dark blue, but he didn't move away from you. It crossed your mind how easy it would be right now, to close the distance between the two of you and to kiss the skeleton. You gaze flicked down to his ever present smile, wondering briefly what it would actually be like to kiss him…he didn't exactly have lips, so how would that…

"Alright there pal?" Sans asked, and you realized that you literally had just been staring down at his mouth.

"Yep," you squeaked, leaning forward again on the table with a blush. You glanced up at Undyne who was wiggling her eyebrows suggestively at you, and you just gave her a glare.

The little kitten of fire that had been sitting on the table suddenly disappeared and you frowned slightly, glancing over at Grillby. He was occupied with a customer and had probably just lost concentration. You looked back to the table, noting that you and Sans were facing the opposite way from the counter, so he wouldn't see if…

A small purple fire puppy appeared on the counter in front of Grillby, while you continued facing your friends. You saw Undyne, who was facing the right direction, notice it and look at you questioningly, and you just offered an innocent smile in return. She smirked, almost proudly, before returning to the conversation at hand. You joined in, but kept your concentration on maintaining the little fire puppy, and on keeping it to a low burning standard. You didn't notice that it was creating a purple glow in your chest from your soul, but that was mainly obscured by your clothes anyway.

It went well for a while before you realized that Sans had turned around and was staring at the puppy. You froze, and so did the puppy, but you realized your mistake and kept it moving happily. With Sans now looking, you took that chance to look over as well, seeing the way that Grillby was looking at the puppy with delight.

"Hey Grillbz," Sans called out suddenly, catching Grillby's attention. "Didn't know you could make fire purple."

"I can't," Grillby said. He picked up your fire puppy and carried it over. "It's not mine."

"Then…whose is it?" Sans asked as Grillby placed the puppy down on the table. Grillby gave you a subtle pointed look and you just shrugged ever so slightly. "Looks like the same magic we saw that day at Undyne's class."

"Now that you mention it, it does," you said, playing along. Grillby sighed minutely before heading back to the counter to tend to customers. "Guess that same person is in here?"

"Except that none of the same people are," Sans muttered. 

"Ah who cares?!" Undyne yelled. "It's CUTE!" You chuckled softly, and made the puppy walk over to Undyne, jumping onto her. You winced at the way she flinched, at the way Alphys's eyes widened with panic, both of them probably expecting it to burn. But after a moment they relaxed, and Undyne watched with a surprised expression as it climbed onto her shoulder. Papyrus reached out to pat the puppy, cooing adorably at it.

And then there was Sans, who was staring at the whole thing with no lights in his eyes.

"Sans?" you whispered cautiously. He blinked, the lights returning to his eyes.

"Yeah sorry, I'm fine," he said, but there was a tightness to his voice. You looked at him worriedly before turning your attention back to the puppy.

How were you to know that he'd just made the connection between the puppy, the time he'd seen that magic before when you were around, that first time when Papyrus had gotten burn marks on his arms, the purple glow from your soul…he was slowly connecting the dots, and you could do nothing but sit there cluelessly, not even realizing that your magic was still creating a purple glow in your chest as it always did, and not realizing that Sans was noticing this too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this chapter is half of what was originally supposed to be one, but it got quite long so I'll continue it in another chapter xD And at this point I couldn't keep Sans being so clueless, I mean, it's so obvious xD
> 
> And for the record, the reader doesn't have control yet, confident as she may be ;) Foreshadowing? Probably
> 
> Anyway, here's your usual cookie offering *hands out cookies* I actually made cookies today, without burning down the kitchen so I'll count that as a success xD


	13. In Which Everything Goes To Hell

Sans was at a loss for what to do. This purple magic, it could only be coming from you. When the fire puppy had appeared before, it had been in Undyne's class, and the only people who had been there and were here right now was him, you and Undyne. Undyne definitely couldn't do this, her magic was spears, and it certainly wasn't Sans.

He glanced over at you, at the purple glow emanating from your chest where your soul would be, barely visible through your clothes. That only confirmed his theory. He had no idea how, but you were using magic.

And well, that honestly explained a lot, yet at the same time explained nothing at all. Like why you didn't just tell him about it in the first place…did you not trust him?

Sans sighed minutely, closing his eyes for a second. This…was a mess. He couldn't help feeling a little hurt that you didn't trust him enough to say anything to him. But it wasn't like you were obligated to in the first place, the two of you were nothing more than friends with playful flirting. Yet despite telling himself this, he couldn't erase that painful feeling.

"Sans?" you asked for the second time, concern showing in your eyes.

"I'm fine, really," Sans replied, shrugging off his weird behaviour. He looked over at the puppy again, to see that it was now gone. Damn, he hadn't been paying attention for a while.

"Something's on your mind," you said, and Sans looked carefully at you.

"Maybe there is," he said blankly. "Maybe there isn't. You don't need to know." It was a low blow and he knew it, throwing the lack of trust right back at you. The guilt ate at him as you flinched, hurt flickering over your expression before you scowled. 

"Sans come on, I don't want to argue with you again," you whispered, surprising him.

"Yeah…" he said slowly. "I'm sorry. Got a lot on my mind."

"It'll be okay bonehead," you said, offering him a kind smile, which was much too optimistic for what had been happening to you recently. How were you suddenly so happy after losing everything?

"If you say so," Sans replied, looking down defeatedly. He had to talk to you about this, but if the others didn't know then he couldn't just bring it up so suddenly. But if you'd been _lying_ to him all this time, and how could he trust anything you'd said…

"Okay no," you stated, crossing your arms. "You're bordering on looking sick Sans, you're not okay."

"I'm—" he started, but you cut him off with a determined expression.

"You need to go and rest," you commanded. "At least just to sort out whatever thoughts are on your mind."

"THE HUMAN IS RIGHT," Papyrus cut in. "YOU LOOK ILL BROTHER. WE SHALL RETURN HOME NOW AND I WILL MAKE YOU MEDICINAL SPAGHETTI."

"Heh, thanks bro," Sans said softly. His thoughts were still racing, trying to figure you out, trying to trust you despite knowing that you were lying. He felt exhausted and tired, and hanging around here wasn't doing anything to help that. "You're both right, I guess I'm just tired to the bone." He gave you a half hearted wink, and you smiled sadly at him as if you could tell he was forcing it.

Sans stood up and Papyrus followed, and Sans got ready to teleport them home. You got up beside them, placing a hand on Sans shoulder.

"Text me when you feel better?" you whispered, genuine concern lacing your voice. Sans nodded shakily, and you leaned in quickly to press a quick kiss to his cheek. "Go and rest, bonehead," you murmured, not looking him in the eye as you pushed him towards Papyrus. Sans blinked before teleporting the two of them out of there and back to their house, any resolve that he had to be angry at you now completely gone as he moved his hand up to trail over where you had just kissed him.

~~

Back in the bar, you were glaring at Undyne who was snickering at you. "Shut up," you muttered, sitting back down. You had no idea what was wrong with Sans, or why you'd just done that, but he'd started looking worse the longer he stayed there. It looked like he was having some sort of inner crisis, something he didn't know what to do about. And you hated to admit how much you cared for him and wanted him to get better.

"That was weird of him though," Undyne said. "Did ya notice that he started looking sick around the time your puppy was over here?" You thought back to it to realize that Undyne was right. A nauseating feeling settled in your stomach and your magic flared up, the burning magic that you never could control.

"You don't think…you don't think he figured it out, do you?" you forced the words out, bringing your arms close to wrap around yourself.

"I really don't want to say it," Undyne said, wincing. "But I think he did."

"Th-then it's a g-good sign that h-he left," Alphys pointed out, and you gave her a questioning look. "I-if he figured i-it out and was mad, h-he would've attacked y-you."

"I'm not sure if this was really better," you muttered. You felt a sudden hand on your shoulder and looked up to see Grillby sliding into the booth beside you.

"What happened?" he asked, taking one of your glowing hands in his.

"We think Sans just figured out that ______ has magic," Undyne explained, and Grillby just nodded in understanding. He pulled you into a hug, which calmed down your magic a bit, but you couldn't help the rising panic that was spreading through you.

"I think it would be best to go home and sleep off the worry," Grillby said. "In the morning the two of you will be thinking more clearly, and you can sort it out then."

"Grillby's right ______," Undyne whispered soothingly, and you nodded slightly, trying to resist the urge to just curl up in the warmth from your dad's embrace and ignore the problems of the world. Undyne and Alphys stood up, and Grillby pulled away to allow you to stand as well.

"It'll be okay," Grillby said, the soft crackle of his voice calming you slightly. "Just be honest with him, he'll understand." You just nodded again, not trusting your words anymore as you began to shake. Grillby watched you sadly for a moment before turning to Undyne and Alphys. "Look after her," he said, evidently not wanting to leave you like this. They nodded, and Undyne put her hand on your shoulder to guide you out of the bar, Grillby watching worriedly.

"Don't be so worried," Undyne said as the three of you walked back towards the house. "He likes you, it'll take more than one small secret to make him hate you."

"But he looked so…" You trailed off, not even being able to find the words to describe Sans's expression. You felt sick, everything had been going so well and then he just had to go and figure it out…

"E-everything will turn out f-fine," Alphys stuttered, although she sounded almost as nervous as you felt. You didn't reply, and the three of you just continued walking in silence.

Well, that is, until some jerk of a human decided to make everything worse.

"Well well well," a drunken human on the side of the street said, stumbling over to the three of you. Undyne scowled, angling herself so that you and Alphys were behind her. You barely managed to stop yourself from groaning, you didn't need this right now, you needed to go and sleep the edge off of your panic and magic before you did anything stupid. "What do we have here?"

"None of your business," Undyne snapped. The man ignored her.

"Pretty lady like you hanging out with these two monsters?" he said, looking straight at you, and you knew he was using the word 'monsters' as an insult. "Baby you could do so much better."

"Piss off," you growled, your hands glowing purple as you scowled at the guy. You were already on the edge of losing control, one wrong move and this would end horribly.

"Oh, I bet you're one of _them,_ " he continued, not noticing the dangerous glare you were giving him. "The monster fuckers. The poor excuses for humans who sleep with these abominations."

"Shut. Up." you snarled, accentuating each word. The purple glow extended to your chest, as flames started wrapping around your hands. It was dangerously hot, even to you, your skin burning as you attempted to keep from aiming your magic at the man.

"______," Undyne warned, taking a step away from you that she probably didn't even realize she took. "You need to calm down, and we need to go. You know the blame will be put on us if he gets hurt." Alphys had huddled close to her side, looking nervously at the man.

"And oh, would you look at these two," the man said, barking a harsh laugh. "Gay monsters, who woulda thought. Could they get any worse?" Oh this guy had just crossed a line, he could say anything to you but the moment he went anywhere near your friends… "Two ladies though, bet that'd make a hell of a show…" His smile was predatory, and you snapped.

You had no real control over what happened next, and it was all such a blur when you thought back on it later on. But one emotion stood out from the mess that you felt, coming from not only you, but those around you as well. It was fear, fear of the untameable purple flames that lit up the night in a fiery blaze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha...oops?
> 
> This was one of the few plot points planned out from the start, although by this point Sans was still supposed to be clueless, but I'll just run with it xD
> 
> Accept these cookies as an apology for this and what is to come? *holds out cookies*


	14. In Which The Truth Comes Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dunno how many of you read the previous chapter before I changed the last paragraph, but heads up, I changed that and it sort of changes the reader's thoughts about the attack from what it originally was, so I'd suggest rereading over that just in case ^_^

Sans woke up to his phone vibrating with a phone call. He hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, his mind too restless with thoughts about you and whatever magic this was. He let the phone ring for a bit before groaning and waking himself up enough to answer it.

"Yeah?" Sans said, sitting up and answering the phone call.

"Hey Sans," Undyne said, sounding exhausted. "So uh…we need a bit of help."

"What kind of help?" Sans asked suspiciously.

"Well…something happened, and the police are holding us on suspicion of attacking a human…"

Sans was quiet for a moment. "Did you?"

"What? No! You know we're smarter than that."

Sans sighed. "Fine, I'll come see what I can do." He hung up, rubbing his face with his hands tiredly before standing up and preparing to go see what the hell had happened.

~~

You were sitting in the police station, although unlike Undyne and Alphys you weren't actually locked up there. Because of course you were instantly free from any suspicion, just because you were "human."

"You know, you really should just go home," one of the police officers said, noticing that you were still there. "We'll call you if we need you for something."

"I'm not leaving my friends," you muttered, staring at the ground. The guy just shook his head before walking off. You just continued to sit there, leaning forward with your elbows on your knees, hands clenched together tightly in attempt to keep any magic from even threatening to surface.

After you'd lost control of your fire magic and it had naturally attacked the thing you were angry at at the time, someone had called the police. There must have been someone else in the street at the time. The police had come, as well as an ambulance, and of course they'd immediately put the blame on the only two monsters in sight, Undyne and Alphys. You had simply knelt on the ground, in shock from what you'd inadvertently done. You'd hurt someone, something you swore you'd never do again, not to this extent.

Undyne and Alphys were taken away, although neither of them had told the truth of what happened, and chances were they still hadn't told the police that it was you who controlled the fire. You were taken in as a witness, but you hadn't really said a word. Eventually the police just gave up and tried to send you home, but you refused to leave.

"______."

You looked up, surprised to see Sans standing there. He came and knelt beside you, one hand on your knee as he looked at you. "I look like shit, don't I?" you muttered, your voice still kind of croaky from the tears shed hours ago.

"Not gonna lie, you really do," he said gently. "What happened? I got a call from Undyne…"

"Police think they attacked a human," you muttered.

"But what really happened?" Sans pushed and you just shook your head, looking down as you started shaking. Sans sighed, standing up. "I'll be back, okay bud? Gonna see if I can sort out this mess." He vanished, probably off to somewhere else in the police station, and you just choked back a sob. He _knew,_ he knew you had magic, if he found out what had actually happened, who knew what he would do…

~~

Sans asked around for a bit, before getting directed to the police officer in charge of the case. The police officer saw him coming, and instantly just gave him a tired and exhausted look.

"Hey pal, " Sans asked, hands stuffed lazily in the pockets of his hoodie as he looked at the guy. "You in charge of the investigation against my friends?"

"Yes," he said. "Name's Lestrade."

"Sans," Sans replied warily. "Care to explain what happened?"

Lestrade just sighed. "We got a call about a monster attack and took the monsters into custody, what more is there to it? We even have footage from the cameras in the area."

"Look," Sans said. "I know my friends. One of them is too sweet and kind to ever hurt anyone, and the other is smart enough not too. There has to be some sort of misunderstanding."

"Feel free to watch the footage and explain to me what else could have happened," Lestrade said. "To be honest, I just want the case to be done with, we get enough of these reports daily. We don't even know if the guy is pressing charges yet, or actually if he's even going to make it."

"What?" Sans asked, confused.

"Yeah, he's lying in hospital covered in third degree burns. This is a bit too close to becoming a homicide case."

Sans froze, specifically on the word "burn." Because, of the three of you, only one of you could use fire magic…he just hoped it was still a misunderstanding, and that you'd had no part in the attack. "Show me the video," Sans demanded, trying hard to keep the lights in his eyes so the human wouldn't freak out. Lestrade shrugged and clicked around on his computer, pulling up street footage.

You, Undyne and Alphys were walking down the street. A human approached, stumbling slightly to indicate that he was drunk. Things were said, although the video had no sound. It was too pixelated to see what really happened, but Sans noticed Undyne and Alphys stepping away from you. And then the guy burst into purple flames.

"That's enough," Sans said, stepping away from the computer. Purple fire, your speciality. Lestrade closed the video.

"So?" he said. "What the hell am I supposed to do with this?"

"I think you'll find that each monster has their own specific type of magic," Sans said. "Neither of those monsters can use purple fire, even test that if you want. That should be enough to free them. And the third one is human, so she couldn't have done it." Lestrade just gave an exasperated sigh before waving Sans off. Sans did without hesitation, heading straight back to where you had been.

~~

"______." You looked up at Sans who was standing in front of you, lights gone from his eyes. He grabbed your arm and a moment later the two of you were standing outside.

"What was that for?" you muttered, stumbling slightly as Sans let go of you.

"What the hell?" he growled. "Why the hell would you do that?"

"Do what?" you asked quietly, feeling nauseous. He knew, he knew that it was you and now he was probably going to attack and kill you like he'd almost done at the start.

"You attacked a human," Sans growled angrily. "You got Undyne and Alphys locked up and now they're stuck in there trying to protect you because they'd never give you up." He paused for a moment. "You know what, let's backtrack. Y o uh a v em a g i c."

"I would've told you eventually," you muttered, shrinking under Sans intimidating gaze. "Really Sans I never wanted to lie to you I just—"

"You just what? Thought you could get away with magic because you're _human?_ "

"I'M NOT HUMAN!" you yelled, fists clenched as you scowled at Sans. He faltered a bit at your outburst. "I'm…I'm a hybrid, a crossbreed, whatever you want to call it, that thing you've been looking for so you can use it in _research_."

"That's impossible," Sans pointed out. "You're too old, monsters haven't been on the surface for long enough. You have to be a human that has mag—"

"My mother fell into the Underground," you growled. "She met Grillby and the two of them had me. She died giving birth and I was raised by Alphys and Undyne for however many years before I ran away because I _hurt_ Undyne and I've been afraid of my magic for years and I was _finally_ getting better and learning control and then that stupid human had to come and insult my friends when I was already terrified of what you were going to do to me and I just had no control and now I'm terrified again of hurting people and—"

"Stop," Sans said quietly, and you fell into silence, breathing heavily from your rant. "What do you mean, you were terrified of what I'd do to you?"

"You figured it out didn't you?" you breathed. "Earlier that night. That's why you left, you figured out I had magic."

"Yes," Sans confirmed. "I was just hurt that you never told me, I was confused, but I'd never _hurt_ you…" You didn't say anything, just stood there with still heavy breathing as Sans fell silent for a moment, looking conflicted on what to do about the situation. "You know…everything makes a lot more sense now. Like why you'd never seen a Disney movie."

"Shut up," you muttered, but smiled the tiniest bit. Sans looked a little bit more relaxed for a moment before frowning.

"You can't control your magic?"

"Not really…Grillby was teaching me."

"And Grillby…is your dad…" Sans groaned. "I was jealous of your _dad._ "

You scoffed slightly. "Oh, so you were jealous?"

"Not the point," Sans said quickly. "So you only hurt Paps by accident?"

"Of course," you replied. "I'd never hurt him on purpose, he's so innocent and adorable." Sans just nodded slowly.

"I'm sorry," he murmured. "I gave you a lot of shit for being human and for hurting Paps…"

"I'm the one who should be sorry, I've been lying this whole time," you muttered, before smiling a bit. "Well, I think we've found the source of our miscommunication."

Sans chuckled a bit. "Yeah…"

"So what are we going to do about Undyne and Alphys?" you asked, shuffling a bit.

"Well, if the guy you attacked does end up surviving and p—"

"What?" you cut in. "Surviving? It was just a couple of burns, right?"

"Uh, bud, third degree burns all over the body is enough to kill someone…"

The world suddenly decided to start spinning, and Sans caught you as you stumbled. "I feel sick," you muttered, clenching onto Sans hoodie as you leaned against him.

"I think you need to go home and get some rest," Sans said quietly, wrapping his arms around you. "You've burned yourself out."

"Yea—wait, was that a pun?" You felt the shaking of Sans chuckles. "Sans no."

"Sans yes," Sans said, leaning back a bit so you could see him smirking. You just pouted at him and he smiled even wider.

A second later, and the two of you appeared in an unfamiliar room. You looked around at the messy room and…a trash tornado in the corner. That was pretty funny actually.

"Yeah sorry about the mess," Sans said sheepishly, and you looked back at him to see him blushing the tiniest bit. "I'd take you back to Undyne's place, but sleeping on the couch can't be comfortable for you."

"Not really," you murmured. Sans nudged you over to the bed, and you gladly collapsed onto it, exhausted from the previous events and having not slept in hours.

"Get some sleep," Sans said. "I'll try to sort out this whole mess. If you wake up and I'm not back, Paps will be hanging around so you can ask him for anything."

"Thank you Sans," you muttered, already letting your eyes droop. Sans watched you with a fond expression for a moment, before helping to pull the covers of the bed over you. You snuggled up into the warmth and comfort of the bed.

"No problem love, just make sure you're rekindled by the time I get back," Sans said, winking. You just groaned at the fire pun, and he laughed before teleporting out of there. You were too busy being annoyed over the pun to realize what he'd just called you, and you were too tired to go back over what he had said. It only took a few more moments for to sleep claim you and drag you into the unconscious world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well about damn time, don't ya think? I mean, they still have some issues to sort out, but at least we're getting somewhere now xD Also, fire puns are surprisingly easy to think of in comparison to puns about anything else xD
> 
> *hands out cookie offering* I ate all the cookies I'd made so now I'm sad and cookieless xD


	15. In Which Things Aren't As Okay As They Seem

You woke to an unfamiliar room, panicking for a moment before remembering that Sans had brought you here. Into…his room. Curiosity immediately got the better of you and you climbed out of the warm bed, looking around.

It was a mess. The trash tornado you had noticed before was still spinning in the corner, and you assumed some sort of magic was involved in that. You watched it spinning for a few moments, smiling slightly. Continuing looking around the room, you noticed a painting hung up on the wall, of the night sky, stars sparkling. You walked over to it, looking at the tiny details that made up the beautiful scene you'd gone so many years without seeing.

"So I guess you'd never seen the sky either." You didn't need to turn around to know that Sans had just teleported in, but you turned to look at him anyway, standing there with his hands in the pockets of his blue hoodie.

"I came to the surface a few days after everyone else," you said quietly, smiling softly at the memory. "The first thing I saw was the sun rising…"

"We were the first to leave," Sans said. "Along with Frisk. Speaking of, the kid misses you." Your smile widened. "They're also downstairs right now. Along with Undyne and Alphys."

"You got them out?" you gushed, eyes widening. Sans smiled.

"Yep. Used the science of magic, they couldn't really argue."

"But are they still going to be looking for me?" you asked worriedly.

"I don't think so," Sans said. "Only if the guy presses charges when he wakes up. But if they do come after you…" The lights vanished from his eyes, but before he could say anything else you took a quick step over, placing your hands gently on his arms.

"Don't hurt anyone," you pleaded. "If they come after me, I'm going to have to face what I did…but no one else needs to get hurt."

Sans closed his eyes. "You're right. But…" he trailed off, opening his eyes only to avoid eye contact with you.

"Sans," you murmured softly. "I got myself into this mess. If they come after me then there's nothing you or I can do to stop them. At least, nothing legal." Sans looked up at that, giving you a mischievous look. "Sans no."

"Okay fine," Sans said, smiling a little bit cheekily. You just shook your head at him, before stepping away and heading towards the door. You felt a sudden hand on your shoulder before you suddenly appeared in the living room of the skelebro's house.

"What the—," you started as you saw Undyne, Alphys, Frisk, Papyrus and…a flower, all look up at you, and Sans, who stood there nonchalantly. "Christ Sans, ever heard of giving a little bit of warning?"

"No need to get all fired up over it," Sans said, winking at you. You gaped at him as Frisk chuckled. The flower…well the flower was in a little pot that Frisk was holding, and it had its leaves crossed grumpily.

"You okay punk?" Undyne asked, concern evidently showing in her voice.

"I…" You trailed off, before shrugging. "I'm okay." Oh that was such a lie but they didn't need to know that.

"Like HELL you are!" Undyne yelled, jumping up. You just frowned, looking down. You didn't want to talk about this right now, you just wanted to pretend that everything was okay, even if it was just a short dream that you'd have to wake up from eventually.

"HUMAN IS IT TRUE THAT YOU HAVE MAGIC?" Papyrus asked excitedly. You smiled despite yourself.

"Yeah," you confirmed. "Grillby's my dad, so, I guess I sort of inherited it. By the way, has anyone called him?"

"Yeah," Sans said. "I went over and talked to him for a while. He's coming over as soon as he can." You nodded slowly, thankful that he'd be here soon…but, how would he react to what you'd done?

"CAN YOU SHOW ME SOME OF YOUR MAGIC?" Papyrus asked. You smiled shakily.

"Maybe another time," you breathed. Both Undyne and Sans looked at you sharply. "I'd…rather not, at the minute."

"BUT—"

"Leave it Paps," Sans said. Papyrus looked confused. "He doesn't know the whole story of what happened," Sans murmured to you, and you just nodded.

You were suddenly distracted by a small tug on your sleeve, and you looked down to see Frisk standing there. They grabbed your wrist, turning your hand palm up. You froze at what you saw, burn marks spreading all along your skin. You looked at your other hand to see the same, a red mess of blisters and scabs.

"Shit," Sans muttered. "You just failed to mention that?"

"I uh…didn't notice," you whispered. Sans sighed.

"Let's get that fixed," he said, walking off towards the kitchen. You followed, and the rest of the people in the room went back to conversation, although Frisk followed closely behind you, holding onto your wrist as substitution for holding your hand.

"Are you going to tell Pappy what happened?" you asked.

"Yeah, he'll find out sooner or later," Sans said. "I just didn't want to put too much pressure on you, by you know, telling everyone." He turned on the tap in the kitchen sink and took one of your hands in his as Frisk jumped up to sit on the bench besides the two of you. "How did you manage this?"

"I really don't know," you said quietly. "It must've happened when I hurt that guy…" Sans just looked sadly at your hand before pointing to the water.

"It'll sting, but you need to clean the wound," he said. "I'll get some bandages." He vanished, and you looked at the running water before sighing. You gritted your teeth and put your hand under the water, flinching as the pain shot through you.

Frisk put a hand on your shoulder, before grabbing a phone, must've been theirs, and typing something in. They turned the screen to face you.

_"It wasn't your fault."_

"You say that kiddo, yet if I'd kept control that guy wouldn't be in hospital," you muttered.

_"People do things they don't mean when they can't control what they're doing."_

Sans appeared in the room again as you were reading the text, looking at it over your shoulder. "Don't compare her to the flower kid." Frisk pouted, crossing their arms.

"The flower?" you asked. "I was going to ask about that…"

"That's Flowey," Sans spat. "You don't really want to know him." Frisk glared at him.

_"Flowey_ _isn't bad, he didn't want to be."_

"That doesn't erase what he did," Sans muttered, and you looked at his expression to see such a dark pain behind his eyes, something you'd never seen before. Frisk gave him a sympathetic look, and for a moment you saw the same pain mirrored in Frisk's expression. Just what had happened to these two? To distract yourself from overthinking it you put your other hand under the water, biting your lip as it stung.

"So are you ever going to use your magic again?" Sans asked, breaking the tense silence. Frisk nodded in agreement to the question, swinging their legs excitedly.

"I um…" you trailed off, casting your eyes down. "I don't think I can really…trust myself, after this."

"Grillbz was teaching you though," Sans mentioned. "You'll get better, with time."

"You think this is the first time I've hurt someone Sans?" you growled. "I already thought I was getting better, thought I'd never hurt someone again. And now look what's happened…I…I need to be more careful, I need to—" You broke off as your voice cracked, clenching your fist, oblivious to the pain it sent through you from the burn.

Sans took your hand, gently uncurling your fist. "What happened the first time?" he asked gently.

"You know that eyepatch Undyne wears?"

Both Sans and Frisk stayed in silence, but you watched the realization spread across both of their expressions.

"Does she hold it against you?" Sans asked quietly, and you shook your head. "Then it's fine."

"Don't make it sound so easy to just let things go," you muttered. Sans shared a glance with Frisk.

"Believe me love. I know it's not."

You sighed, turning off the tap and looking down at your hands. Then you froze and looked up at Sans.

"Um…'love'?"

"Don't like it? I can think of something else." He looked so casual about it, and you could see his expression turning smug the longer you stood there in silence staring at him.

"No…it's…fine," you managed to stammer out, ignoring the heat rising to your cheeks or the way your heart was beating. The moment was interrupted by Frisk snickering to the side, signing something to Sans.

"Maybe you were kiddo," Sans said, leaving you to look between the two of them in confusion. "Anyway, ______ we need to bandage your hands."

"Oh uh, okay," you said. The two of you went to sit down at the table nearby, and you placed your hands on the tabletop to allow Sans to wrap them up in the bandages he'd brought. He was gentle, careful not to cause you any harm as he did so. As he did it, you watched his expression. He was looking down at what he was doing with a soft, sort of warm expression, almost affectionate. After tying off the second bandage he looked up and caught you watching, a slight blue blush rising to his cheeks. Neither of you looked away, and he still held one of your hands in his.

Oh but Frisk was still in the room, and they were now signing something repetitively, as if in a chant. Sans noticed it first, looking over with an unamused expression.

"Not now, and not in front of you," he said, leaving you to wonder what Frisk had been signing.

At that moment, Undyne walked in, Grillby following behind her. You jumped up, noting Grillby's tense posture and how he relaxed immediately upon seeing you. You didn't really know what to say…how could you explain to him what you'd just done? How you'd hurt someone, almost killed them, even after the two of you had worked so hard… You couldn't bear to see the look of disappointment that would inevitably come, so you just pulled him into a hug instead. At least this way you didn't have to see his expression.

But it was warm and comforting, and he only pulled you closer instead of pushing you away like you feared he would.

"I was worried about you," he murmured quietly with the familiar crackle of his voice. You didn't say anything, just hugged him tighter. You didn't want to pull away and have to deal with the real world anymore…but it had to happen eventually. Grillby pulled away, his hands on your shoulders as his eyes searched your face. You avoided eye contact, looking down at your feet instead. "Are you okay?"

You opened your mouth to say that you were fine, but the words just wouldn't come. He was the only family you had, you couldn't bring yourself to lie to him. So you just shook your head, still staring at the ground. Grillby didn't say anything, just pulled you into another hug.

"So Grillbz, I've got a burning question for you."

You pulled away from the hug to glare Sans for the pun, and he just winked at you. You made an exasperated movement with your arms and went and sat back down at your previous spot at the table, Grillby moving to sit at the table too. Undyne just went and stood over by Frisk, giving them afist bump before Frisk started speaking in sign language to her.

"Do you actually have a question or was that just an excuse for a pun?" Grillby asked, unamused.

"Why'd you never tell anyone about the human that must've fallen Underground?" Sans asked. "She must've been there a while, and you what, kept her hidden?"

"Papyrus met her," Grillby pointed out and Sans just went quiet for a moment. And then just sort of sat there staring at Grillby with his eyes slowing narrowing. "She was harmless, your brother was entirely safe."

"He never mentioned her though," Sans muttered. "Really shoulda taught him what humans looked like."

You scoffed. "What, he really had no idea?"

"The first time he saw Frisk, he thought the rock next to them was the human."

You honestly thought he was joking but he only gave you a deadpanned expression. "No way." Sans only nodded, and you started giggling. Sans smiled, his cheeks going a little bit blue again, which was really quite adorable.

Grillby meanwhile just looked between the two of you, before sighing and crossing his arms. You gave him a questioning look but he just shook his head, partially amused watching the two of you. The other part of him was wanting to be an overprotective dad and get Sans the hell away from you, but he didn't act on that.

"So…" Sans said in the growing silence. "Did someone turn the heat up, it's getting a little hot in here."

"Sans I will throw a book at you if you don't stop the fire puns," you warned as he just smirked at you.

"There's no book here."

"I'll go and get one," you said. "Actually no, I'll do it when you least expect it."

"Oh no, I'm scared to the bone." He was still smirking at you, and you just kicked him under the table.

"Numbskull," you muttered, but you couldn't stop the small smile tugging at your lips. He just chuckled, and in that moment it seemed like everything was okay. You were with your friends, your dad, nothing really seemed wrong. Maybe you'd look down and your hands weren't injured, maybe you'd never actually hurt anyone, maybe you weren't at threat from the police locking you away.

Well. It's always easier to pretend that everything's okay. But in the end, it's only pretending. And pretending doesn't last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reader's sort of oblivious, isn't she? Should just kiss Sans already... Anyway xD Can see some of the emotional issues everyone has coming up in this chapter...
> 
> Oh hey, I have a tumblr now! Like, one that's got the same username as this account and I'll probably link my fics onto there too xD Sooo you guys can check that out if ya want to :P  
> https://justanotherwolfy.tumblr.com
> 
> *hands out the chapterly offering of cookies to everyone*


	16. In Which Issues Aren't Discussed

Everyone stayed at the skelebros house for the rest of the day. You could tell from the underlying tenseness in the air that they were all worried about you, but none of them went outright and said it.

"Human?"

You were standing alone in the kitchen, having gone to get a drink from where everyone was sitting in the living room. You turned to look at Papyrus, surprised at his lowered voice.

"What is it Paps?" you asked as you grabbed a glass and started filling it, holding it with your fingertips to prevent putting pressure on the burns that were finally starting to hurt.

"I…" he hesitated, which was enough out of character that you turned to him, giving him your full attention. "My brother did not tell me much about why everyone is here…" You winced. "But whatever it is, I am sure that it is not your fault."

"I hurt someone," you murmured. "Just like I hurt you and just like I hurt Undyne."

"But you did not do that on purpose," Papyrus insisted. "You did not wish to inflict harm on anyone, therefore it cannot be your fault." You smiled slightly.

"I wish the world believed that," you said quietly. You wished you could believe it too.

"Well then I, the Great Papyrus, will just have to convince them of it!" he said with such a look of determination that you couldn't help smiling widely.

"The world needs more people like you Paps," you said, and he smiled proudly at the praise.

"You two okay in here?" You looked over at Sans who had appeared in the doorway. Not walked into the doorway, but teleported to it like the lazy skeleton he is.

"OF COURSE BROTHER," Papyrus said, his voice returning to its usual volume. Sans gave you a questioning look and you nodded minutely.

"Well, everyone is heading home now," Sans said. "You should probably see them off, I gotta drop Frisk back at Toriel's."

"You know I haven't met Toriel yet," you mused quietly to yourself.

"We'll introduce you sometime," Sans promised. "But right now you need rest love." You blushed and ducked your head at the term of endearment, not allowing yourself to overthink it too much. Without another word you walked into the living room where Alphys, Undyne, Frisk and Grillby were waiting.

"We sorta assumed you'd be staying here punk," Undyne said. "It's best not to take things from Sans when he's feeling protective." Sans appeared in the room right as Undyne said that and glared at her.

"You'll be okay staying here?" Grillby asked, rubbing his hands together with concern lacing his voice.

"Yeah," you murmured. "And I'm…I'm fine, really."

"Y-you're not very c-convincing," Alphys said, and you just looked down, avoiding eye contact with everyone. Frisk chose that moment to run over to you, wrapping their arms around your middle. You froze for a second, your on-edge magic flaring up. But you forced it down as you looked at Frisk, you couldn't hurt them. You wrapped your arms around Frisk and saw everyone visibly relax. 

"Well, stay safe nerd," Undyne said softly. "We'll check on ya tomorrow okay?" You nodded as Frisk pulled away, picking up the grumpy flower in the flowerpot that had been sitting on the table. You stared at him as he glared defyingly at you.

"What are you looking at?" he snapped, and you just frowned back at him as he folded his leaves across himself.

"Okay kid, time to take the plant out of here before he catches fire," Sans said, and you gave him a little look of horror at the fact that he would even suggest that. But Sans already had his hand on Frisk's shoulder and the three of them vanished.

"He wouldn't have meant that against you," Undyne pointed out. "He just really hates Flowey."

"Why?" you asked, curious. Undyne shrugged.

"They never really explained it. Frisk knows though." You tilted your head in confusion before Sans reappeared in the room, hands stuffed in his hoodie pockets.

"I should be leaving too," Grillby said, looking at you. He lowered his voice then. "I know you probably want space at the minute." You gave him the tiniest of smiles before stepping forward to hug him, relishing in the feeling for just a moment before forcing yourself back to reality. He gave you a sort of sad smile before heading out towards the door.

"We'll be going too punk," Undyne said. "I trust the skeleton to look after you." She gave a threatening look to Sans, who shrunk a bit under her gaze.

"Y-you should g-get Sans to help w-with your control p-problem," Alphys stuttered, looking down as she gave the suggestion. 

"DO YOU TRULY THINK THAT IS A GOOD IDEA?" Papyrus asked, and there was something about his tone that seemed off to you.

"Paps has a point," Sans said, shrugging. "Well we don't have to decide that just yet anyway. See ya later guys." The two just nodded hesitantly and left, bidding you their farewells.

"What did you mean by that Pappy?" you asked Papyrus, who instantly got a guilty look on his face.

"WELL—"

"It's nothing," Sans muttered, his eyes closed. "Just leave it."

"BUT BROTHER—"

"I said leave it Paps."

Papyrus gave Sans a conflicted look before sighing and letting the topic drop.

"Want me to read you a story before you go to sleep?" Sans asked, opening his eyes to look at his brother, who lit up at the idea.

"OF COURSE!" he exclaimed, bounding over in the direction of his room. Sans chuckled lightly as you watched him with amusement. "He sleeps easier if I read to him," he said as explanation.

"That's adorable," you said quietly, smiling as Sans blushed. Then he vanished, probably to Papyrus's room, leaving you alone with your thoughts.

You looked down at your hands, which were shaking against your will and sighed, holding the two of them together in the way you normally used to block your magic. It only resulted in stinging the burns however and you let go quickly.

After a few minutes you decided to go check on the skelebros, and walked up to Papyrus's room. The door was open, and Sans was sitting next to Papyrus's bed, an open book in his hands. Papyrus was looking sleepy, and as his attention started to fade Sans stopped reading, closing the book after marking the page.

"Goodnight bro," he said softly, and you couldn't help the little spark of affection you felt at seeing the sweet exchange. Sans turned to the door and you froze as he saw you standing there. But he just held his finger up to his mouth as a sign to keep quiet and walked out, closing the door softly behind him.

"So uh," Sans started awkwardly. "You can take my bed if you want, I'll just sleep on the couch."

"What? No Sans I'm not forcing you to sleep on the couch in your own house," you insisted.

"I'm not letting you take the couch again," Sans said. "How long have you been crashing on Undyne's?" You didn't actually know the answer to that, you hadn't been counting. "That's not good for your back, take the bed."

"No," you said, pouting. Sans narrowed his eyes slightly.

"I guess we could both take the bed."

There was a moment of silence, where you processed what Sans had just said, and he realized what he had just said and started blushing light blue.

"I mean, uh, just coz it's a big enough bed, and I don't really mind if you don't but I don't wanna make you feel awkward or anything…" He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, looking down at his feet.

"Okay," you agreed, surprising him. You smirked slightly at his expression, before heading off in the direction of his room without another room. He scrambled to follow you, apparently forgetting that he could just teleport in.

When you walked into his room you realized that you didn't have any of your clothes with you, including your pyjamas. You could just ask Sans to teleport over and grab your bag from Undyne's house, but you didn't really want to be left alone at the moment.

"Uh…you could borrow some of my clothes…" Sans said, seemingly reading your mind. He was blushing again, and it was honestly one of the most adorable things you'd ever seen. As the thought crossed your mind, you began to think that you might have to rethink over how you felt about this skeleton.

"Thanks," you said quietly, and Sans grabbed a spare white shirt and black pants from one of the draws. He threw you the clothes and you walked into the bathroom connected to his room to get changed. The clothes were a bit baggy on you, but they were comfortable and smelt like Sans, and gave you a calming sense as you snuggled into them.

When you walked back into the room, Sans was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking the same except minus the blue hoodie, which showed off his skeleton arms. You couldn't help glancing over them with curiosity, skeletons weren't exactly a common occurrence in the Underground. You looked back up to Sans's face to see him blushing a darker blue than before as he looked at you in his clothes.

"Like what you see?" you teased, raising an eyebrow at him. He looked away quickly, trying to hide his blush. You smiled before going to sit on the other side of the bed, leaning back against the headboard.

"You know," Sans started, leaning back against the headboard next to you. "When you were in the Underground, shouldn't monsters have tried to attack you?"

"Yeah," you whispered. "They did. For most of them I just got out of it by showing them magic. Others were…more persistent." You closed your eyes to the memories, of the ones who just wouldn't give up.

"Where did you hide?" Sans asked, noticing that you didn't want to talk about that aspect of your past, at least not yet. You smiled slightly.

"I had a few little hideouts, but my favourite one was in Waterfall," you said. "It was near the wishing cave, so I could go there and pretend that the stars were real…" You trailed off. 

"I did that too," Sans said softly. "Nothing compared to the real thing though, was it?"

"I don't think much can compare," you said with a soft smile. Sans didn't say anything, and the two of you fell into comfortable silence. But your mind betrayed you, turning back to the thoughts of fire, of burning, of pain. You hugged your knees to your chest, and Sans looked at you with concern.

"You can't forget it, can you?" he asked softly, and you shook your head, closing your eyes.

"Can you—" Your voice broke and you tried again. "Can you just…talk? About anything…tell me about Frisk and how they broke the barrier." Sans looked at you silently for a moment before nodding.

"Well, that's a long story…I guess, for me, it started with the promise I made to Toriel…"

Sans started telling you in detail the story of how Frisk broke the barrier, how they'd met and befriended everyone that they came across. You let his voice calm you, and eventually lull you to sleep. Sans kept talking for a while before he noticed that your breathing had evened out and that you were no longer responding. He smiled softly at your sleeping form, gently picking you up to move you into a lying position, since you'd fallen asleep sitting up. He pulled the covers gently over you, watching as you snuggled into them.

"Maybe," he said quietly, more to himself than to you. "Maybe one day I'll tell you about the other times the kid came through the Underground." He stayed still and quiet for a moment, before sighing softly. He leaned back against the head board, closing his eyes but not quite falling asleep. You didn't deserve to be woken up by another one of his nightmares. And he tried to convince himself that that was the only reason he refused to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took longer than I'd have liked to get written, but I had an important exam last week...now I mean, I have two more exams tomorrow, but they're not important so I wrote this instead of studying xD
> 
> So, ominous last sentence that can be taken in multiple different ways, but you'll know what I intended it to be in the next chapter :P
> 
> COOKIE OFFERING *throws cookies to everyone*


	17. In Which Discussions Are Had

Fire. Pain. Screaming. Dust.

That was all you could remember as you woke up, gasping for air that just didn't feel like enough. Purple flames were spreading across your palms, burning through the bandages that covered your hands.

"Hey it's okay, it's okay." Sans was wide awake, it looked like he hadn't even fallen asleep in the first place. He knelt on the bed beside you, his hands hovering just above your shoulders. "You're okay, it was just a dream. Take a deep breath okay?"

You nodded shakily and took a few deep breaths, slowing your breathing down. With that, the flames on your hands disappeared and Sans pulled you into a hug, rubbing your back comfortingly.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked softly, and you just shook your head into his shoulder, shutting your eyes to the tears threatening to fall. "Alright, let's talk about something else then. Did I tell you about the time that Papyrus stayed outside Undyne's house all night until she agreed to train him?" You laughed a little, though it came out almost as a sob. "Uhh what else…" Sans paused for another moment before taking a deep breath. "You know, when me and Paps were little, our dad would take us into the lab with him. We would've caused less trouble if he'd just left us at home. Poor guy, I couldn't count the amount of times Paps messed with his experiments…"

You sniffed slightly. "He was a scientist then?"

"The royal scientist before Alphys," Sans murmured, but there was something off about his voice. You pulled away, searching his expression. "Feeling better?"

"I think so," you said, but you were distracted. Sans wasn't meeting your eyes. "What happened to him?"

"To who?"

"To Gaster."

"…w h a td i dy o uj u s ts a y?"

You flinched at the sudden emptiness in his eyes and the threatening tone of his voice. "I uh…" you stammered. "I just…you said he was the royal scientist before Alphys right? That was Gaster…" Sans didn't say anything, just continued staring at you with the dark eyes. "Sans please, you're scaring me."

He closed his eyes and leaned back. "W.D. Gaster, the royal scientist before Alphys, was conducting dangerous experiments. One went wrong, and I guess you could say he fell in to his experiment. He was erased from existence, entirely, including memories of him."

"So you mean…"

"You shouldn't know him," Sans said. "I shouldn't either. Neither should the flower, yet we do."

"Papyrus doesn't remember him?"

"Nope, he thinks we never had any parents. Alphys doesn't remember who taught her everything she knows." He paused. "Of course, you would've been in the care of Alphys when he was still around."

"Actually he looked after me before Alphys," you muttered. "I can't remember much beside his name."

"It's weird that you can remember him at all," Sans murmured. He sighed deeply, closing his eyes. "Look let's just…drop it, for now."

You simply nodded. Sans sat without moving for a moment before opening his eyes and standing up.

"We may as well just get up," he muttered. "It's already light outside."

"Yeah," you whispered tentatively. Sans paused for a moment before vanishing, leaving you alone in silence. The only sound was your breathing and you couldn't help feeling the panic rising as your thoughts drifted back to your nightmare.

"Hey shh." Sans had appeared back in the room, kneeling on the bed in front of you again. "Deep breaths okay?" He gestured to the floor where you bags that had been at Undyne and Alphys's house. "I was just getting your stuff."

You nodded shakily. "Thank you."

"I'll just be out in the hallway okay?" Sans said. "I'm not going to intrude on you getting dressed or anything…" You smiled weakly at him.

"Thank you," you said, and he nodded before walking out of the room and closing the door behind him. You heard a quiet whistle start from the other side of the door and smiled a little bit more.

You threw on some comfortable clothes from you bag and walked into the joining bathroom to tidy up your appearance a bit, fixing your tangle of bed hair with the comb that Sans had, for some unknown reason. Why did a skeleton need a comb?

You walked out of the room to where Sans was leaning against a wall in the hallway waiting. You gave him a smile before the two of you continued through the house down to the kitchen.

"So you should go see Grillbz at some point," Sans said as you sat down at the table. "So he can help you get your fire under control."

"I will," you agreed. "Though Alphys said you could help too?"

Sans looked down suddenly, breaking eye contact. "Yeah…I'd prefer not to."

You frowned slightly, feeling somewhat offended. "Why not?"

"It's got nothing to do with you love," Sans said quickly. "I really do want you to get control, I just…" He trailed off.

"Sans…" you said. "What is it?"

"Everyone else has more health points," Sans muttered, still looking down at the ground, almost ashamed. "With Undyne, Paps, especially Grillby who you can barely hurt with fire, you can make mistakes, which will happen for sure." He trailed off again, not finishing the explanation.

"Okay, so we just stop before I hurt you too much?" you said slowly, not fully understanding what he was saying.

"I have one HP. If you hit me once with even your weakest attack…"

You froze, letting this settle in. "Oh god…Sans no I shouldn't be near you I don't have control I could dust you…" As you spoke you scrambled up, backing away from Sans, who finally looked up at you with an expression of pain.

"______," Sans said, taking a step towards you. "You won't hurt me. I trust you okay?"

"I don't trust myself," you muttered. You rubbed your hands together, feeling your magic boiling up. You couldn't let it out, couldn't put Sans at risk.

"______," Sans repeated, walking over to you. You backed away until your back hit the wall, clasping your hands together, the familiar purple glow showing between your fingers. Sans kept walking until he was right in front of you. "I know you're afraid, you have every right to be. But…you wouldn't hurt the people you care about."

"You don't know that," you whispered, your breathing heavy and quick, tears threatening to spill from your eyes.

"Yes I do," Sans said. "I trust you." He reached up to take your hands in his, the hands spilling with purple magic. You tried to pull your hands away but you were trapped against the wall, there was no where to go. Sans put both his hands on top of yours, pulling your clasped hands apart and holding them palms up. 

"Please don't," you whimpered. Sans didn't say anything, but instead put his hands on top of your open palms. You squeezed your eyes shut, willing all your magic to disappear in that moment, willing all menace and burn out of the fire. After a moment of silence, you slowly opened your eyes to see Sans still standing there, gently holding your hands. 

"See?" he said. "You have control."

"You have a death wish," you muttered, but tightened the hold on his hands ever so slightly. "Thank you Sans…"

"Of course," he said softly, and you smiled shyly up at him.

"HOW ARE YOU FEELING TODAY FIRE HUMAN?"

"Fire human?" you repeated, looking over at the highly energetic Papyrus standing in the doorway.

"WELL FRISK IS THE HUMAN SO…"

You chuckled lightly. "Yeah that's fine Pappy." You then realized that Sans was still standing very close to you, holding your hands. "Uh…"

"WELL, I SHALL MAKE BREAKFAST THEN," Papyrus said, marching over to the kitchen as if nothing unusual was happening. Sans chuckled, a low rumble that you could feel through your joint hands.

"You should eat and then I'll take you over to see Grillbz," Sans said, letting your hands drop, which you felt a little disappointed at. "I gotta go shower, will you be okay with Paps here?"

"Yeah," you said, smiling at the skeleton. He winked at you before vanishing. A moment later you heard water start running upstairs.

"MY BROTHER LIKES YOU A LOT," Papyrus said suddenly, looking over at you.

"I uh…like him too?" you said, moving back over to sit at the table.

"I MEAN, HE LIKE LIKES YOU."

You fell silent. Well, it wasn't like Sans was subtle about it…but…

"YOU LIKE LIKE HIM TOO."

"What?" you said quickly. "I…what no I don't, I just…um…no." You didn't even sound convincing to yourself.

"WHATEVER YOU SAY FIRE HUMAN," Papyrus said gleefully. You just shook your head, smiling fondly. Papyrus walked over and placed a plate proudly in front of you.

"Spaghetti?" you asked, smiling as you tried not to laugh. 

"OF COURSE!" Papyrus exclaimed. "WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO HAVE?"

"Nothing Pappy," you said, still smiling brightly as you dug in to the meal.

Sans reappeared a few minutes later, right around when you finished the spaghetti, once again wearing his blue hoodie. He had his hands stuffed in his pockets as usual.

"Did I miss anything?" he asked.

"Nothing at all," you said before Papyrus could say anything about your brief conversation. "When are we heading out?"

"Now if you want," Sans said shrugging. "Hey bro, I'm just gonna take ______ over to see Grillbz."

"OKAY BROTHER, I WILL SIMPLY GO SEE IF UNDYNE WOULD LIKE TO TRAIN THEN," Papyrus said enthusiastically, marching out of the room. 

Sans walked over to you as you stood up, holding out a hand. You took his hand without hesitation, the teleporting becoming second nature to you. The thought that you could burn him didn't even cross your mind.

The two of you appeared in Grillby's bar, and you certainly didn't imagine the fact that Sans kept holding your hand for a bit longer than necessary. You smiled softly, and just hoped that he couldn't see your blush.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ay just in time for Christmas xD Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays everyone
> 
> Okay yeah I had to mention Gaster at some point xD I really like Gaster okay, I may even write a fic for him one day. Dunno yet if I'll actually bring him into this fic. Also I would've had the reader and Sans actually do something relationship like in this chapter if it weren't for the reader being very emotional, just didn't seem like the right timing
> 
> COOKIE OFFERING *hands out cookies*


	18. In Which Sans Likes Your Soul

You sighed as yet again your purple flames leapt up in heat at an extent that would've easily burnt someone. Grillby gave you a sympathetic look as you snuffed out the fire, which was something you were improving on at least.

It had been a week since the incident, and since you started staying with the skelebros. You'd spent a lot of the time with Grillby, with him trying to help you get back your previous control of your magic. But every time you lit a flame, the memory of what had happened came back and your emotions went out of control, taking the fire with them. It was lucky Grillby couldn't actually be burnt by you, though the magic aspect did take a bit of his HP away. It was nothing too hard to fix with some monster food though.

"This isn't working," you muttered. You were sitting on Grillby's bar, since he always had to work, and Sans was sitting a safe distance away. He stayed with you for the whole week, a comforting presence constantly by you.

"You can't give up," Grillby said. "If you don't learn control now, you might never learn it later."

"Everything I try just ends with this though," you said, the purple fireball appearing in your hand radiating heat. "I just…"

"It's your emotions that are the issue," Grillby said. "You think of what happened every time. Try to think of something happier."

"Easier said than done," you muttered, but closed your eyes and tried to bring up good memories. At first, there was nothing, just emptiness. But then…you thought of your friends, Undyne, Alphys, Papyrus, Frisk…Sans. You thought of all the times you'd shared with them in the past month, the happiness and the laughs. You opened your eyes then, and with only those thoughts in your mind you created another purple fireball, also focusing on keeping the heat down.

Grillby reached over and hovered a hand over the fireball, and you nervously waited to hear what he said. "It's warm," he said. "But not hot."

"I…it worked?" you said, suddenly feeling like this was very similar to that first time you'd controlled the temperature.

Grillby smiled and nodded, and you lips slowly spread into a smile, looking at the fireball in your palms. You remoulded the shape, creating the fire puppy you'd made several times before, before this whole mess started.

"Good job," Sans said, looking at the puppy that you let walk onto the counter, leaving no burnt footprints in its wake. "See, I knew you could do it."

"Well, it's a start," you said quietly, your smile turning soft as the puppy walked to Sans, rubbing its head against the hand Sans raised to pat it. Your smile faded a bit as you remembered what could happen if you messed this up while in contact with Sans, and Sans pulled away from the puppy.

"Watch the heat there love, it's rising a bit."

Your eyes widened and you snuffed the puppy out of existence immediately. You looked down sadly, but Grillby put his hand on your shoulder.

"It's okay, you made progress at least," he said gently.

"Yeah," you smiled hesitantly.

"I think that's enough practice for today," he said. "Go spend some time with your friends, have some fun."

"You sounded like such a dad just then," you chuckled, and you saw his flames redden just a bit. Sans stood from his seat at the counter and held his hand out to you.

"Want to pay Undyne a visit?" he asked, and you nodded, waving goodbye to Grillby as you took his hand.

A second later, the two of you were in the room you had been living in a week ago. Undyne and Alphys were on the couch…just sitting there, looking anywhere but each other. They were both blushing deeply and looked just a bit disheveled.

"You know what, I don't even want to know," you said, smirking at the two of them.

"SHUT UP NERD," Undyne yelled, jumping to her feet.

"How a-are you?" Alphys asked, the question aimed at you.

"Better," you said quietly, shrugging.

"I wonder why," Undyne said, and you followed her gaze to see her looking at the hand that was still clasped in Sans's. You let go of his hand hurriedly, fighting the blush that threatened to appear. And was that disappointment you saw on Sans's face? Undyne just gave you an exasperated look before grabbing you by the hand, pulling you out of the room. "DON'T MIND ME BORROWING YOUR GIRLFRIEND FOR A MINUTE HERE SANS."

"I'm not his—what?!" you spluttered as you were pulled away. You heard Sans chuckle, but no signs of denial to what Undyne had said. Undyne pulled you into the kitchen and rounded on you, staring intensely at you.

"Okay, you two need to stop," she said.

"Stop what?" you said, trying to play innocent.

"Dancing around each other as if you don't like the other when you clearly both do!" Undyne exclaimed. "And you know it too! He even calls you 'love'!"

"I…uh…" you stuttered, not knowing how to reply.

"Get your crap together and just ask him out already! Or kiss him, either way, I'm not complaining."

"But Undyne," you whined. "I'm awkward."

"So is he," she replied, rolling her eyes. "And so is Alphys but she's doing better than the two of you combined." You just grumbled to yourself, and Undyne broke into a wide toothy grin, raising a hand to ruffle your hair. "Come on punk, I know you can do it!" 

You pouted but gave in and let you mouth spread into a small smile. Undyne clapped a hand onto your shoulder and led you back into the other room with a victorious grin. Alphys and Sans had started talking science like the nerds they were, and both looked up as the two of you walked back in.

"I DEMAND THAT WE WATCH MOVIES!" Undyne suddenly yelled, leaping onto the couch and knocking over Alphys, the two of them falling onto the floor in a fit of giggles. You stood beside Sans, shaking your head at the two.

"So what was that all about?" he asked you quietly, glancing over at the other room Undyne had taken you to.

You just shook your head. "Just Undyne being Undyne again."

"HEY PUNK, CHOOSE A MOVIE!" Undyne yelled from the floor. "Or a TV show or anime or something."

"One of you guys choose," you said, sitting down on the couch. "You know I'm uneducated in this stuff."

Alphys gasped. "I-I know what we can watch!"

And that is how the four of you ended up watching some anime that Alphys and Undyne apparently were super into. Mew mew…something. You were actually finding it quite interesting, however after hours of watching it you began to get tired.

You yawned against your will, and leant against the closest thing to you, which just so happened to be Sans. Not that you were complaining or anything. You felt him shift to wrap an arm around you, pulling you closer, and you snuggled against him, a small content smile on your face as your eyes drifted closed.

"Are you tired?" Sans asked quietly. You nodded against him, eyes still closed. You heard the anime pause, and opened your eyes to see Undyne looking at you.

"Go get some sleep punk, we can always continue this tomorrow," she said.

"Okay," you murmured sleepily, curling up closer into the warmth that was Sans. Sans nodded a goodbye to Alphys and Undyne before teleporting you back to his place. He'd teleported you straight onto his bed, and made to move away from you. "Stay," you said quietly.

"I wasn't leaving," Sans chuckled. "You're cute when you're tired."

"Shut up," you said, pulling away from him and pouting at him. You saw the amused expression on his face and your pout immediately turned into a smile. Although…you felt colder all of a sudden, and leaned back against Sans again, wrapping your arms around him. The warmth from him spread through you, and you smiled again, letting Sans pull you closer to him.

The two of you stayed there for a while, both content to just stay there in silence. You were smiling, feeling much happier than you had since…well, since forever. There was just something about Sans, something that made you feel something you'd never felt before. And whatever that feeling was, it was warm and it was addictive, and you wanted more.

"Hey love…you're glowing."

"What?" You looked down to see a purple glow emanating from your chest. It pulsed in time to your heartbeat. Fear immediately shot through you, putting you on high alert. This usually happened when you were using your magic.

"Hey it's okay, it's just your soul," Sans said quietly. You looked back at him, and noticed him staring at the glow, entranced. You blinked once before making a quick decision.

"Do you…want to see it?"

"I uh…" A dark blue blush quickly spread across Sans's cheekbones. "You uh, you know that's not usually a thing you just show people right?"

"I know," you said calmly, looking directly at Sans as you said it. He blushed darker, but didn't object as you put your hand to your chest, pulling on your soul until it appeared in your hand. Purple light glowed from it, tinting the room. The swirling pattern of white and purple, ever changing, was currently looking a little bit more white than it had last time.

The small heart floated in your palm, and you held it out towards Sans.

"Are you…are you sure?" he asked, looking between it and you. But his expression held a sort of amazed aspect, almost awe as he looked at your soul. You smiled and nodded, letting the small swirling heart float onto the bony palm that Sans raised. You trusted him with your life, quite literally in this scenario. "It's beautiful," he whispered, then looked up at you. "You're beautiful."

You blushed darkly, looking down at your lap in a flustered state. "I uh…um…" Sans just smiled at you with amusement. You looked up at him through your lashes, smiling shyly.

Then his expression changed. It got a little bit mischievous, a little bit cautious. "You're okay with this?"

"Yes," you said. "I trust you Sans, I…" You trailed off, not sure where you were going with that. A thought had crossed your mind, but you were absolutely not ready to say that yet, you weren't even sure if it was true yet.

"Tell me to stop if you get uncomfortable," he said gently, looking more mischievous by the second.

"I uh…okay? What are you—"

You were cut off as Sans reached out his other hand, the one not supporting the floating heart, and brushed the tips of his fingers over the surface of it. You gasped, not at all prepared for the sensation. It felt hot, tingling, spreading through every nerve in your body. The sensation only lasted a second as Sans quickly withdrew his hand, looking worriedly at you, and you were left breathing heavily, hands on the mattress to hold yourself up as you looked at him with wide eyes.

"What…was that?"

"Has no one ever done that to you?" he asked softly. You shook your head, swallowing. "The soul is extremely sensitive to contact, which can be used in various ways." He watched you quietly for a few moments. "Did I…cross a line?"

You scoffed. "Not at all, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want you to do that again." A moment later you realized what you'd said, and a blush rose to your cheeks. You met Sans's eyes again to see his gaze turned heated, watching you carefully.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "Coz ______, I don't know what you're thinking about all this, but I think it's pretty obvious how I feel about you, and I just wanna make sure we're on the same page here about what this means."

"Sans," you said slowly and softly. "I…" You struggled for a moment to find the right words, making a little exasperated noise. You made eye contact with him again, Sans who was sitting there still holding your soul like it was the most precious thing in the world. Then you decided to do the only action that could accurately convey how you felt about him.

You leant forwards and pressed your lips to his mouth. He didn't have lips, but after a moment you felt a response in his magic, making something solid there that moved similarly to the way lips would so he could kiss you back. At first it was gentle, and he leaned into it gently, your soul still cradled in his hands between the two of you. You pulled away for a moment, your eyes searching his.

His free hand rose to your cheek, brushing it softly before he leaned in again. It was more this time, harder and full of desire. His arm snaked around your waist, pulling you closer and onto his lap so that you were essentially straddling him. You wrapped your arms around his neck, one hand trailing up the back of his skull. It was a little awkward since he was still holding your soul in his other hand, and you broke off again, looking down at the heart.

"Um…we should probably…not do anything with that just yet," you said, a little breathlessly, a little dazed from the kiss.

"As you wish," Sans said, bringing the soul back to your chest and pushing it back to its home, the only remainder of it being a light purple glow.

"Did you…just quote The Princess Bride?"

"Pft no," he said, but he said it with a smile of amusement, and you just shook your head, smilingfondly at him.

"So uh…that just happened?"

"Yeah it did."

"Uh…would you be objected to that happening again in the future."

"Absolutely not love," Sans replied, and you bit your lip, feeling the blush rise to your cheeks. He leaned in quickly, pressing a quick kiss to your lips and pulling back before you could react. You couldn't help the whine that surfaced from your throat at the quick loss of contact, and Sans chuckled at you. You shut him up with a kiss, lingering before pulling away and rolling off him, instead curling up to his side.

"We can always continue this tomorrow," you murmured. "I'm still tired."

"Did I tire you down to the bone?" he said with a wink, and you just scoffed before leaning up to kiss him again.

And as the two of you sat there, kissed some more and eventually went to sleep, you couldn't help feeling completely happy and content, warm and loving. Now this, this was something you could get used to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My god this is so long overdue...I'm always less productive on school holidays than I mean to be. But hey, I go back to school tomorrow so I guess that means I'll be more productive? xD
> 
> Oh and I remembered that they weren't together officially yet so...WOOO THEY FINALLY KISSED
> 
> Also, COOKIE OFFERING *hands out cookiiies*


End file.
